Freshman pitcher Paige Lowary (Dallas Center, Iowa) got the start in the circle for Mizzou Softball’s regular season finale on Sunday and turned in another fantastic pitching performance, helping the Tigers take down No. 1 Florida in eight innings, 3-2. Lowaryset a new career high by pitching 8.0 innings, only giving up two runs on three hits and four walks while striking out seven.
With neither offense able to generate a rally through two innings, redshirt junior OF Taylor Gadbois (Maryville, Mo.) jump-started the Tigers in the third inning with her team-leading 58th hit of the season. Sophomore OF Emily Crane (Troy, Mo.) followed with a hit of her own before redshirt junior 2B Sami Fagan (Dunnellon, Fl.) found a tiny hole in the outfield between the RF, CF and SS for a two-RBI single to give Mizzou an early 2-0 lead.
Florida answered back in the top half of the fourth inning with a leadoff walk followed by a hit-by-pitch to set up Aubree Munro for an RBI single. Florida tied it up with another single before sophomore C Kirsten Mack (Riverside, Calif.) threw out a runner at 3B trying to advance on a passed ball.
The Tigers threatened again the bottom half of the fourth inning loading the bases via two walks and a senior 1B Kelsea Roth (Yorba Linda, Calif.) single over the 3B. Florida induced aninning-ending double play to squash the threat.
Both pitchers found their groove after the fourth inning as they cruised for three consecutive scoreless innings to send the game to extra innings.
Fagan led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a single up the middle for her third hit of the day. A sacrifice moved Fagan over before back-to-back intentional walks loaded the bases. In Roth’s final regular season home game at University Field, she was the hero with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Fagan from third and clinch the 3-2 walk-off win for the Tigers.
Next up for Mizzou is the SEC tournament in Baton Rouge, La., next week.
