The Missouri women’s softball team opens the 2023 season this weekend in Clearwater, Fla. (Photo courtesy: Mizzou Athletics)

COLUMBIA, MO — The 2022 Missouri softball season was one with massive expectations.

A team that returned its best players and added more talent on top of that and set realistic sights on the College World Series. Those goals fell just short in the NCAA Regionals against a talented Arizona team that played its way to the College World Series, but the season was a success.

“My goal coming in here was to make Mizzou Softball Stadium one of the toughest places to play in the country,” Missouri head coach Larissa Anderson said. “It is.”

Now what?

To Anderson, it’s the same. The goal remains to play in the College World Series.

What changes this year is the headliners. The players that would lead MU on the diamond and in the circle, and clinch that berth.

The task for MU is replacing 248 of the team’s 435 hits, 58 of the team’s 28 home runs and 166 of the team’s 257 RBI from last season.

It might be impossible. There may never be a team like the Tigers had last year again in Columbia; it was a near-perfect mixture of experience and talent that eventually found ways to shine, even after a difficult start to the 2022 season.

But, MU doesn’t need to replace all that on offense. It just needs to find ways to recreate it in the aggregate.

Anderson pointed to players like junior Riley Frizell and senior Megan Moll as those expected to step into some of the starting roles that last year’s graduating class left open.

Returning players like Kara Daly, Jenna Laird, and Alex Honnold have solidified their spots, which is part of the team that allows Anderson to keep her expectations high.

“Tradition never graduates,” Anderson said.

Daly and Laird are two offensive stalwarts that allow MU to have power and for-average hitters, respectively. The biggest on-field addition to the team, however, is the Texas Tech transfer Payton Jackson, who will fill one of the open outfielder positions. Jackson led the Red Raiders with a .336 batting average.

Jackson’s place in the offense is an example of how different MU’s offense will look in 2023. Expect fewer fireworks and less home run power, but expect a higher team batting average. Last year, MU hit .274 as a team, a number that was down from the .320 average the Tigers hit as a team in 2021.

This aligns with the biggest addition to the team this offseason. That addition is hitting coach Jeff Cottrill, who comes to Columbia from Oklahoma State, where he helped coach six OSU players to finish the season with a batting average of above .300.

Most importantly, Cottrill has been to the College World Series. He knows what it takes to get to where MU wants to go.

“What separates him from other hitting coaches is a personal relationship with the players,” Anderson said. “Understanding them as people, not cookie-cutting their swing and knowing what their body is physically capable of doing and maximizing what they physically can do.”

Hitting for power might be more exciting, there’s no doubt. But, drawing more base runners with a higher average leads to more opportunities to plate runs and score four or five runs per game. That aligns with MU’s strength, which is its pitching staff.

Anderson said the trio of Jordan Weber, Lauren Krings and Megan Schumacher know what’s expected of them this season. Weber and Schumacher are seniors, whereas Krings is a junior, but all bring experience and improvement.

Weber, Krings, and Schumacher have all added new pitches they can throw at batters this season, and Krings has upped her pitch velocity. Last year, Krings would peak in the 70 miles per hour range. She’s now consistently throwing that speed.

“They want to go out on a very, very high note,” Anderson said. “They’ve committed to their craft in the weight room, which has carried over to their pitches.”

Krings and Weber already give MU something few teams nationwide can boast: two aces. Anderson called on them both in the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Regionals, and they both delivered.

However, mentioning Schumacher in the same breath as the starters alleviates some pressure off Weber and Krings.

There’s now a third arm that can allow Weber and Krings to take an extra day’s rest if needed, and it allows them to pitch in fewer innings. They can exit a game if they need because of Schumacher, and they won’t need to go as deep in games as they’ve needed to in the past.

Still, in the past MU’s pitchers have proven they can hold teams to just a couple of runs per game. Should that repeat in 2023, the pressure would fall on an offensive unit to plate enough runs to win games.

It’s possible this season, especially under Anderson, who has proved she can always have the team in a position to win the biggest games of the season. Except for the season that ended early by COVID-19 in 2020, Anderson has made NCAA Regional appearances in every season she’s been in Columbia.

Anderson will look to continue that momentum in 2023 with players that bring the talent but need to bring it all together on the diamond.

“That’s carried over,” Anderson said. “They know what the expectations are. They know the legacy that they want to leave.”