Courtesy of Missouri Athletics
BATON ROUGE, LA. – Three home runs provided the offense, and sophomore RHP Tori Finucane pitched perhaps her finest outing of the season as Mizzou (39-13) opened the post-season with a resounding 9-0 shutout win in six innings over Mississippi State (35-19) in the opening game of the 2015 SEC Tournament.
Finucane allowed just one hit in 6.0 innings to improve to 19-8 on the season, and she got plenty of help from her teammates as senior SS Corrin Genovese, senior 1BKelsea Roth and sophomore C Kirsten Mack all homered to fuel a nine-hit Tiger attack. Genovese opened scoring in the bottom of the second as she turned on a 2-1 pitch for a homer to left field, her fourth round-tripper of the season (15th career), which made it 1-0.
After a bases-loaded walk to sophomore LF Natalie Fleming made it 2-0 Tigers in the fourth, Roth dealt the death blow in the fifth, when she stung a towering fly ball that cleared the left field wall with the bases loaded for her 12th home run of the season (2nd grand slam in 2015). It was her 43rd-career round-tripper, moving her to within four of the Mizzou career home run record of 47 set by Jen Bruck (2005-08).
Mack put the game on ice with a three-run shot down the left field line in the bottom of the sixth that made it 9-0 and ended the game as the run-rule was invoked. The home run was Mack’s 14th of the season and pushed her into a tie for the team lead, along with freshman 3B Amanda Sanchez.
The only hit allowed by Finucane was a line drive off the glove of 3B Angela Randazzo in the fourth inning. Finucane threw only 79 pitches and struck out two Bulldogs while walking two for her third shutout of the season.
Sanchez had two hits Wednesday despite playing with a gimpy ankle that she injured in Mizzou’s win Sunday over #1 Florida. She was unable to make the start at third base for the first time this season, but started as the DP and went 2-for-4.
Mizzou advances to the SEC Tournament Quarterfinal round tomorrow and will face off against 3rd-ranked Auburn (46-9) at 10 a.m. central time. The game will be televised live on the SEC Network.
