Freshman Kara Daly hit a home run in all four Mizzou wins over the weekend. (Photo courtesy: Mizzou Athletics)

by Torrance Terrell
Staff Writer

The University of Missouri women’s softball team enjoyed a dynamite first home weekend of the season, this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The No. 8-ranked Tigers won all four games they played last weekend at the Mizzou Softball Stadium, against St. Thomas University and Bradley University by a combined score of 42-3, with all four contests ending early due to the run rule.

The weekend began with Missouri bashing St. Thomas, 13-0, on Friday. Then on Saturday, Mizzou beat Bradley 10-1, before smashing St. Thomas again, 11-2.

Everything concluded on Sunday, with the Tigers shutting out Bradley, 8-0, in a game where sophomore pitcher Lauren Krings tossed the 12th perfect game in Mizzou softball history.

The 5-foot-8 righthander from Colorado, faced 18 batters in a six-inning performance, and retired every single one of them, with 12 of those outs coming as strikeouts.

Head coach Larissa Anderson, who admitted after the game that she wasn’t sure who she should start when she went to bed Saturday night, said, “I guess I made a pretty good decision, didn’t I?”

The Mizzou defense also made a couple of spectacular plays to help keep the Braves hitless in Sunday’s contest, with outfielders Cassidy Chaumont and Alex Honnold both making sensational diving catches to keep Krings’ 18-up, 18-down effort alive.

“The defense behind me — like Alex and Chaumont’s dives — I wouldn’t be able to do anything without them,” Krings said. “And I have Hatti (Moore) behind the plate just making everything look good. It was a great day for us all.”

Even with Krings’ historic effort on Sunday, the big star of the weekend was freshman third baseman Kara Daly, who went seven-for-11 (.636) at the plate, with four home runs (one in each game) and nine RBIs, didn’t become a full time starter until the second week of the season, but has clearly shown herself to be one of Mizzou’s top offensive players.

Chaumont also had a big weekend at the plate. The redshirt senior from Louisiana, recorded two four-RBI games over the weekend, matching her previous career-high twice, and finished the weekend with seven hits in 10 at-bats (.700) with three doubles, a home run, and nine RBIs.

Mizzou bashed 14 home runs in the four games, with nine different players going deep, including two players — Honnold and Julia Crenshaw — both smacking the first home runs of their collegiate careers.

“We were just having fun the whole weekend,” Krings said of her teammates play. “We were just out there doing what we do and just laughing, and joking around in the dugout, and dancing — obviously — and just having fun.”

The Tigers will be off until next weekend, when they’ll begin SEC play, with a huge series in Columbia against Tennessee. The Lady Vols were ranked No. 18 in the country in last week’s poll and are coming off their own dominant winning weekend, where they won all five games they played against Dartmouth, Virginia, and South Alabama.

Mizzou and Tennessee will play three games next weekend, one game each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with the Saturday game being televised nationally in SEC Network. First pitch on Friday is at 5 p.m., with the Saturday and Sunday games both slated for 1 p.m. starts.

2022 Mizzou Softball Stats

#	Player	AVG	OPS	GP-GS	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	SLG%	BB	HBP	SO	OB%	SF	SH	SB-ATT
12	Chaumont, Casidy	.450	1.288	18-15	40	13	18	4	1	3	13	33	.825	1	0	8	.463	0	0	0-0
17	Wert, Kimberly	.364	1.264	20-20	55	13	20	4	0	7	23	45	.818	7	2	9	.446	1	0	0-0
7	Wilmes, Brooke	.355	1.104	20-20	62	15	22	1	1	5	14	40	.645	9	3	11	.459	0	1	1-2
3	Laird, Jenna	.344	.872	20-20	64	15	22	3	1	1	6	30	.469	6	1	11	.403	1	0	10-11
25	Honnold, Alex	.333	1.002	20-20	54	11	18	5	2	1	6	30	.556	9	2	6	.446	0	0	2-3
19	Daly, Kara	.327	1.042	19-15	49	6	16	1	0	5	13	32	.653	5	0	13	.389	0	0	0-0
2	Bailey, Kendyll	.316	.955	20-20	57	4	18	2	0	4	11	32	.561	7	1	10	.394	1	0	1-1
31	Moore, Hatti	.140	.452	19-19	50	4	7	1	0	1	3	11	.220	6	0	13	.232	0	2	0-0
15	Mortimer, Kelsee	1.000	3.000	2-0	2	0	2	0	1	0	2	4	2.000	0	0	0	1.000	0	0	0-1
42	Hollingsworth, Vanessa	.300	.600	9-0	10	1	3	0	0	0	4	3	.300	0	0	2	.300	0	0	0-0
21	Raabe, Emma	.261	.705	15-14	23	4	6	2	0	0	1	8	.348	4	0	5	.357	1	1	0-0
77	Frizell, Riley	.250	.771	12-6	16	3	4	0	0	1	3	7	.438	2	0	8	.333	0	0	0-0
28	Phillips, Chantice	.250	.583	7-3	8	1	2	0	0	0	0	2	.250	1	0	4	.333	0	0	0-0
11	Crenshaw, Julia	.250	1.571	7-2	4	1	1	0	0	1	2	4	1.000	3	0	0	.571	0	0	0-0
10	Moll, Megan	.222	.555	14-4	18	3	4	0	0	0	3	4	.222	2	1	6	.333	0	1	0-0
44	Deters, Gabi	.167	.703	13-2	12	5	2	0	0	1	1	5	.417	2	0	5	.286	0	1	1-1
20	Burks, Alexis	.000	.000	1-0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0-0
6	Snider, Maddie	.000	.000	17-0	0	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	.000	0	0	5-8
0	Cook, Kendal	.000	.000	10-0	0	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2-2
8	McGivern, Hannah	.000	.000	9-0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0	.000	0	0	3-3
	Totals	.314	.948	20-20	525	116	165	23	6	30	105	290	.552	64	10	111	.396	4	6	25-32
	Opponents	.196	.536	20-20	469	41	92	12	3	5	38	125	.267	38	10	146	.269	3	10	12-15

Missouri Tigers Women’s Softball Upcoming Schedule

Fri., March 11 — vs. #18 Tennessee — 5 pm

Sat., March 12 — vs. #18 Tennessee — 1 pm

Sun., March 13 — vs. #18 Tennessee — 1 pm

Tue., March 15 — at Illinois — 2 pm

Tue., March 15 — at Illinois — 4 pm

Fri., March 18 — vs. #10 Northwestern — 2 pm

Fri., March 18 — vs. Ball State — 4:30 pm

Sat., March 19 — vs. #10 Northwestern — 3 pm

Sat., March 19 — vs. Stanford — 5:30 pm

Sun., March 20 — vs. Ball State — 12:30 pm

Sun., March 20 — vs. Stanford — 3 pm

All Mizzou home softball games will be played at the Mizzou Softball Stadium