The Missouri Tigers came into Los Angeles with high expectations of taking game one of the Super Regional over UCLA. The Tigers held a brief 4-1 lead in the third, but despite a tough effort from freshman pitcher Paige Lowary Missouri went on to lose 7-4.
Lowary earned her first start of the playoffs since being side lined with an undisclosed illness. Whether it was the repercussions of the illness, she struggled to find the zone early giving up a pair of singles and a wild pitch that lead to a UCLA run.
The Tigers answered in the third with a leadoff home run off the bat of Natalie Fleming to knot the game up 1-1. After Bruin starter Ally Carda’s pitch hit Taylor Gadbois and Emily Crane singled, Sami Fagan blasted a home run over the center field wall to put Missouri up 4-1. The home run gave Fagan the Missouri single season record for RBI’s with 66.
The Bruins responded in the bottom half of the inning with a big rally of their own. After the speedy UCLA center fielder Allexis Bennett reached on an infield single Stephany LaRosa knocked her in with an RBI single to cut the Tiger lead to 4-2. Maddy Jelenicki kept the momentum rolling with a double into the gap to tie the game up 4-4.
Carda began to settle in the next inning retiring the Tigers in order. The pac-12 player of the year shut down the Tigers despite the four run third inning giving up just three hits and walking one in the other six innings combined.
UCLA then lead off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run off the bat of Mysha Sataraka to take a 5-4 lead. With the bases loaded Missouri head coach Ehren Earlywine called on sophomore Tori Finucane to come on in relief. Although she escaped the inning Finucane did walk a runner to stretch the UCLA lead to 6-4.
Missouri struggled to spark any sort of offensive rally until in the bottom of the seventh, but it would be too little too late as the Bruins held on to take game one 7-4.
Missouri will need to take game two tomorrow, which is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. CT and then win game three, which is set to start directly after at 5 p.m. CT if necessary.
Missouri needs to find the offensive outburst again tomorrow striking early and often if it wants to have a shot at taking down UCLA. The defensive lapses and inconsistent pitching hurt the Tigers in today’s game and without a dominant performance from tomorrow’s starter it will be hard for Missouri to come out victorious.
Lowary put in a valiant effort today despite her condition. Look for Finucane to take the hill tomorrow in game two.
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