Tigers ready for Super Regionals

Back on March 3rd, Missouri took a 9-2 record into a matchup of national softball powers with Michigan. The Wolverines pounded the Tigers 13-0 in just five innings that day in Fullerton, CA. So as the teams get ready to meet again nearly three months later, Missouri, of course, thinks it has an edge.

"(Head coach Ehren Earleywine) has just been telling us that we're the better team," third baseman Amanda Sanchez said. "And no one else knows that so that's how we have the upper hand on them. Because they're probably going to be overconfident and overlooking us because of earlier in the season when they killed us.

"So I think we do have an edge because we're the underdog and I like being the underdog better."

"I'm not going to predict necessarily that it is," Earleywine said when asked why this time will be different. "But I know we're a different team now. Got off to a decent start the first time we played them and then the wheels fell off and it was one of those, hopefully, anomaly type games. But I think we'll compete."

Earleywine isn't shy about playing up the underdog role with his team.

"We talked about it a little bit (Tuesday)," Earleywine said. "I think it is important. I think that's what Missouri always is. No matter how good we are, we never seem to get the respect that some of the sexier schools get. I know for me personally, that's been very inspiring to me in my own life. I don't know necessarily that it's as big a factor for them, but we'll play it up some."

True or not, Earleywine's approach is rubbing off on his team.

"Night and day, I mean, 360, we're a whole new team," catcher Kirsten Mack said. "We certainly have a chip on our shoulder, but we know we're a completely different team so it's really only a positive motivation type of thing. It's not something that we're kind of reflecting on like, 'Oh can we do it?' We know we can do it. Every one of us knows that."

There is, of course, a reason Missouri is the underdog and it goes beyond that run-rule affair in early March. The Tigers are 42-14 and did navigate their way to a 14-10 record in the SEC, one of the nation's top two softball conferences. But Michigan is 49-5 and the No. 2 national seed.

Both teams bring potent offenses to the Super Regional series. The Tigers have slugged their way to 383 runs. They've hit 70 home runs and stolen 163 bases, a rare combination of power and speed. But Michigan's offense is one of the few that's been even more productive than Mizzou's. The Wolverines have a .356 team batting average and have scored 449 runs, an average of more than eight per game.

The difference in these teams is on the other side of the game. Missouri has used a number of pitchers and sports a respectable, but not dominant, 3.03 earned run average. Michigan, led by workhorse Megan Betsa, has a team ERA of 1.98 on the season and has struck out 402 batters while giving up just 228 hits.

Betsa started 29 games, going the distance 17 times. She has 278 strikeouts in 172 innings and opposing hitters have a paltry .150 average against her this season. Missouri had just three hits and seven strikeouts against Betsa in March.

"I think our biggest issues was just chasing all her rise balls," Sanchez said. "Most of her rise balls are balls. That's when it's most effective, when batters just swing at it. I think going into this weekend, we're going to need to lay off that or make sure it stays low."

"She's really, really good at elevating the rise. Once you show that you're going to swing at it, she just keeps climbing the ladder," Earleywine said. "Then right about the time you start timing the rise ball and getting on top of it, then she'll drop a changeup in there."

Mizzou brings some pitching momentum of its own into the rematch, though. Paige Lowary has emerged as the clear No. 1 starter on the team. Michigan tagged her for 11 earned runs on six hits and seven walks in just three innings in the first game, but that was days after Lowary took a line drive to the head. In the Tigers' dominating regional performance (they outscored three opponents 26-0 and never had to go the full seven innings), Lowary pitched all 16 innings, giving up seven hits and four walks while striking out 13. She has shut out the opponent in 35 of the last 36 innings she has pitched.

"I think in the past month Paige has made huge strides," Mack said. "Right now, you can call any pitch and she'll put it right where you want it."

"She has a confidence out there on the mound that I haven't seen before," Sanchez said. "That's going to be very crucial going into this next weekend going against a tough Michigan team."

Missouri is seeking its fourth Women's College World Series appearance under Earleywine, but its first since 2011.

"It would mean everything for the program," Emily Crane said. "No one on this team has been to the College World Series. I think last year, those girls hadn't been to it either. I think everyone before that, though, had been and had been a part of it. To get this group of girls to a World Series and to help make that happen would be really special."

The Tigers and Wolverines will play game one on Saturday in Ann Arbor. Game two and, if necessary, three, will be on Sunday. The series will be televised by ESPN.

Listen to more of Ehren Earleywine's media session from Wednesday afternoon.

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