3 takeaways from Mizzou's regional split against Arizona and Missouri State

Saturday’s NCAA Tournament softball action featured mixed results for No. 15 seed Missouri, which lost its first game 2-0 to Arizona and won by the same score against Missouri State.

The early loss made it so the Tigers must win two in a row against the Wildcats in order to advance from the Columbia Regional to the NCAA Super Regional.

With at least one game against the same Arizona team coming on Sunday, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s Tiger performances. 

Krings again

The plan wasn’t for Laurin Krings to start on Saturday. The plan was to win the first game and save the sophomore for Sunday’s games. 

Instead, following the loss to Arizona, Krings was back in the circle. A day after throwing 112 pitches against Missouri State, she performed admirably against the same Bears, tossing 11 strikeouts on 109 pitches and turning in another shutout.

"I’m a little tired but I’ll go to treatment,” Krings said. “I’ll be ready to come back tomorrow.” 

More:Laurin Krings gets the nod and stars as Mizzou opens Regional with win over Missouri State

With the season on the line, Krings faced multiple situations where she seemed to be in trouble. The Bears got two runners on base several times throughout Saturday’s matchup, but Krings was unphased. 

Every time, the Bears went back to the dugout without getting a runner across the plate. Krings said nothing changed for her in pressure situations. 

“Same approach,” Krings said. “Just focus on the batter.” 

If Missouri is to pull off two wins against Arizona on Sunday to advance to the super regional, it will likely take another solid effort from Krings in at least one of the games. After Friday’s win, Anderson noted the pitcher would like to go in every game. 

Saturday, she reiterated the point, while also praising Jordan Weber, who threw six strikeouts in the loss to an Arizona team that put up eight runs against Illinois on Friday.  

"I’m going to look at some video from what Arizona did to make some decisions,” Anderson said. “But it’s going to be ‘Susie Allstaff’.” 

Same old issue

The 2022 Tiger squad has been plagued by an inability to string hits together in order to bring runs across the plate. That same issue reared its head against Arizona. 

Against the Wildcats, the Tigers twice got runners on second and third with one out. Twice, they squandered the opportunities, unable to score even a single run. 

Anderson said she felt the Tigers were guessing where the pitch would go, rather than reacting to what was thrown. 

More:Missouri softball: Have the Tigers solved offensive problems ahead of the SEC Tournament?

"I felt like we didn’t swing at great pitches,” Anderson said. “We chased the ball out of the zone, we were caught in between, we were tentative.” 

In the second game, things seemed to have improved. In the top of the first inning, Jenna Laird knocked a hit off the centerfield wall and didn’t stop running until she got to third base standing up.

Then in the top of the second, Kara Daly got hold of an offering from Bears pitcher Steffany Dickerson, sending the ball well over the fence in center field. The Tigers were able to manage two runs against Missouri State but that turned out to be enough. 

With Missouri likely to see pitcher Hanah Bowen again on Saturday, adjustments are needed for a different result. Fortunately for the Tigers, between-game fixes did help them against Missouri State. 

"We’re going to watch some film tonight,” Daly said. “Just see what we had in our at-bats first game versus them and just kind of make a game plan off of that.” 

Time to win

After the loss to Arizona, Anderson’s message to her team was simple. 

"Do anything you can to play on Sunday,” the coach said. “You’ve got to compete. When your back’s against the wall, you don’t have tomorrow.” 

Another loss in either of a possible two games against the Wildcats on Sunday will bring the Tigers’ season to a close. Anderson said she would expect a top effort from Arizona, which would like to avoid putting itself in an elimination situation. 

Despite the need for two wins, Anderson said the team’s focus would be targeted on the first of the matchups, set for 3 p.m. on Sunday. 

“We can’t be looking at the entire day,” she said. “We have to focus on winning game one and then anything can happen game two.” 

Matt Stahl is the Missouri athletics beat reporter for the Columbia Daily Tribune. Follow him on Twitter @mattstahl97.