Exposed no more: How Missouri softball answered wake-up call with series win over No. 3 LSU

Missouri softball coach Larissa Anderson said Monday that her team was exposed after being swept on the road in its last SEC series.

Well, message received.

Her Tigers are a win away from getting all those conference losses back against a top-five team.

Missouri backed up a Friday night victory with a series-clinching, 3-2 win over No. 3-ranked LSU on Saturday afternoon at Mizzou Softball Stadium, overturning an early two-run deficit in the third inning and clinging on to that slender lead the rest of the way.

“A lot of reflection (after being swept at Tennessee),” MU right fielder Kayley Lenger said. “Just like, yeah, it stinks, last week. You know, Coach said we got exposed a lot, and so we just came back to work and got some kinks worked out and just figured it out. Everyone got on the same page, and it showed today for sure.”

Sure did.

It all clicked once Missouri took the lead. It had to, because LSU wouldn’t stop knocking on the door.

Take center fielder Alex Honnold committing daylight robbery, nabbing a no-doubter of a home run by extending her hand over the center field wall for the first out in the sixth inning.

Take any one of right fielder Kayley Lenger’s diving, sliding catches that kept LSU off the scoreboard, including a sliding grab in foul territory to end the sixth.

Take closer Taylor Pannell coming in to face Louisiana State’s cleanup hitter and the top two in its lineup in the top of the seventh — perilously light on insurance — and delivering her SEC-best sixth save of the season with a no-biggie three-up, three-down.

Exposed?

Not through two games against LSU.

“I think we have a really gritty mindset,” Pannell said. “We knew Tennessee was going to be tough, and it was. We really wanted to respond this weekend and show them that we are good and we have a lot of fight in us.”

Missouri got it done with offense on Friday, winning 10-9 on a bitter night in Columbia.

On Saturday, pitcher Sydney Berzon, Friday night’s starter for LSU, returned to the circle in the third inning after MU flipped the visitors’ lead. Berzon was lights-out, allowing just a single hit and striking out six of the 11 batters she faced.

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That left it up to the Missouri defense to take care of the job.

LSU made good contact on multiple occasions. Lenger said Honnold rallied the outfielders before the game and told them to have a good day.

They did, as every warning-track crack ended up as outs and potential bloopers ended up in gloves.

“We just kind of attacked,” Lenger said, “and every ball that was out there was caught. So, it's a good day for the outfield, for sure.”

When it wasn’t highlight-reel catches, it was the Tigers in the circle.

Missouri freshman Marissa McCann threw four innings of shutout ball prior to Pannell’s game-saving seventh, taking McCann’s series tally to 6⅔ scoreless innings against the visiting, top-five Tigers. She held LSU to three hits and one walk Saturday.

“She spins the ball extremely well,” Anderson said. “And she's almost conveniently wild, so when you're facing a pitcher that's conveniently wild, you can't really sit in one part of the zone, because you don't know when she's going to miss. It makes it tougher for me to be able to call a game, but at the same time, she's moving the ball extremely well, so it's really tough to square up.”

For a moment, it looked like LSU was in control and on course to tie the series.

The visiting Tigers belted a pair of solo shots in the first and second innings through left fielder Ali Newland and right fielder McKenzie Redoutey.

But in the bottom of the third, up against the wall, Missouri got the production it needed.

Left fielder Chantice Phillips reached on an error before her outfield partner, Lenger, singled to right field to put runners on first and second. Shortstop Jenna Laird drove home Phillips, who was beaten to home plate by the ball, but LSU catcher Hannah Carson was called for lane obstruction and Phillips was ruled safe.

After Honnold was forced out at first, MU catcher Julia Crenshaw drove home Lenger with a single before Daly was hit on the first pitch she faced in the inning, loading the bases. Facing two outs and two strikes, Maddie Gallagher took a pitch to the arm, and all of a sudden, Missouri was in front.

And in front for good.

Missouri will go for the series sweep over LSU at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mizzou Softball Stadium.

Exposed?

Not this weekend.

“I still don't think we're playing our best softball right now, and we're winning,” Anderson said. “And that's exciting, and we know we're going to find a way to piece it together and it's going to be whatever it takes. … If it takes defensive plays like we did today, or if it takes hitting the ball like we did yesterday, I mean, whatever it takes to be able to come away with a win, and that's the way we’re put together.”

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This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri softball answered wake-up call with series win over No. 3 LSU