Missouri picked up its first SEC win of the season Saturday, beating No. 6 Alabama 5-2 in front of more than 3,500 people packed into Mizzou Softball Stadium.<\/p>\n
Alabama struck first with two solo home runs in the first inning. The first came from leadoff batter Audrey Vandagriff, who took the second pitch of the day deep to left field before Alexis Pupillo hit one of her own, giving the Crimson Tide an early 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The Tigers struck back in the third, scoring three runs to give them their first lead of the series. After a hit by pitch and single put runners on the corners, an error from pitcher Vic Moten allowed Sidney Forrester to reach home. Abby Carr walked to load the bases before Sophie Smith capitalized with a two-RBI double that gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey walked Abby Carr to get to me, and I knew I had to make them pay for that,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Missouri added another run in the fourth as Stefania Abruscato blasted a solo home run to right field for a two-run cushion. In the sixth, Kayley Lenger led off with a triple before Linny Ramsey hit an RBI single to drive her in.<\/p>\n
Abruscato and Smith both finished with two hits on the day, and freshman Addy Waits got on base for the 19th straight game after being hit by a pitch in the third inning. Carr got on base twice via two walks.<\/p>\n
Despite their early success, the Crimson Tide\u2019s offense was held scoreless the rest of the game as starting pitcher Cierra Harrison settled in. Harrison pitched 4\u2153 innings, ending the game with two earned runs, five strikeouts, five hits and no walks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to see her bounce back and just compete,\u201d head coach Larissa Anderson said. \u201cShe just dominated the outer half (of the plate) to right-handed hitters. She elevated her game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carr entered the game in relief, receiving her first career save after allowing only one hit and striking out three. With the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh, Carr forced a lineout to end the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust really impressed with Abby Carr and her pitching performance and clutch in game-winning situations,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cShe\u2019s done it all year, and then to be able to do it in front 3,600 (people), outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a Mizzou team that struggled early in the season, the win comes as the team fights to get back to .500, a mark required to make postseason play.<\/p>\n
On a seven-game win streak coming into the weekend, Missouri continues to search for much-needed wins against SEC opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t believe, you have no shot,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThey\u2019re starting to believe that everything that they\u2019re doing is paying off. It gives that reassurance that \u2018OK, coach is right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Game 3 of the series begins at noon Sunday as Missouri looks to get its first conference series win of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Missouri picked up its first SEC win of the season Saturday, beating No. 6 Alabama 5-2 in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5084,2315,2309,2351,5,2316,2323,2314,2313,2325,53,3416,2330,2422,3520,2335,19,2310,2328,2304,2308,4931,81193,4,2305,2303,2307,2320,2326,1210,185,2324,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-637686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-mlb-postseason","7":"tag-alabama-crimson-tide","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-base-on-balls","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-baseball-competitions","13":"tag-baseball-events","14":"tag-baseball-finals","15":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","16":"tag-baseball-teams","17":"tag-detroit-tigers","18":"tag-earned-run","19":"tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","20":"tag-hit-baseball","21":"tag-hit-by-pitch","22":"tag-home-run","23":"tag-major-league-baseball","24":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","25":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","26":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","27":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","28":"tag-missouri-tigers","29":"tag-missouri-tigers-softball","30":"tag-mlb","31":"tag-mlb-playoffs","32":"tag-mlb-postseason","33":"tag-outdoor-sports","34":"tag-pitcher","35":"tag-run-baseball","36":"tag-softball","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-sports-events","39":"tag-team-sports","40":"tag-turf-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}