Columbia, Mo. – No. 21 Mizzou Softball opened a crucial road series against No. 9 Georgia with a 5-2 victory over the Bulldogs. The Tigers combined offensive power with solid pitching to down Georgia on Friday night.
Senior Kelsea Roth (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and junior Sami Fagan (Dunnellon, Fla.) each hit home runs in the win. Junior Emily Crane also went 2-for-3 at the plate, reaching base in all four plate appearances.
Sophomore Tori Finucane (Germantown, M.D.) picked up her 12th win of the 2015 campaign. Finucane tossed 4.0 innings, allowing just four hits and one earned run. Fellow hurler freshman Paige Lowary (Dallas Center, Iowa) entered in relief in the fifth inning and threw three solid innings to close the door.
After Georgia manufactured a run in the bottom of the first, Mizzou answered swiftly. Roth launched a solo home run over the left field wall, her 39th career long ball, to knot the score at 1-1. Roth is eight home runs shy of tying the school record for home runs in a career. The senior has now reached base in a career-high 21 games.
The Tigers eventually took a 2-1 lead in the second when Kirsten Mack (Riverside, Calif.) raced home on an errant throw, but Georgia responded quickly behind a solo home run in the bottom of third.
The deciding at-bat of the contest came in the fifth inning. Following Crane’s second single of the game, Fagan destroyed a home run that traveled well beyond the right field wall. The two-run shot pushed the Tigers ahead 4-2 and handed Fagan her eighth home run of the season after hitting just three long balls combined in her first two collegiate campaigns.
Mizzou tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh frame. Once again, Fagan put together a clutch at-bat. After a single from junior Kayla Kingsley (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and an error, Fagan smashed a single up the middle to collect her third RBI of the game and give her squad a 5-2 advantage.
Lowary clamped down in the bottom half of the seventh inning, finishing her outing with three strikeouts, zero walks and just two hits allowed.
Mizzou is back in action tomorrow on Saturday, April 3. The Tigers and Bulldogs face off at 1 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. For all the latest on Mizzou Softball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouSoftball.
