Weekend Wrap Up: Track Shines in Tom Botts Invitational
By Josh McSwain
The Missouri Tigers participated in a full slate of athletic events late last week and over the weekend. Tennis and Track & Field gave strong performances, while baseball and softball lost in conference play.
Track and Field
The Tigers performed very well at the Tom Botts Invitational, held in Columbia over the weekend. Freshman Ja’Mari Ward set a mark of 7.88 meters in his first action of the season in long jump, while Mollie Gribbin won the women’s long jump with a mark of 5.88 meters. Ollie Lockley won the men’s 5k as he set a PR with a time of 14:14.78, and Samantha Farmer finished first in the steeplechase with 11:11.35.
On the second day, the teams both continued their strong performance. Sophomore Maya Cody, the Most Outstanding Performer of the meet, won the 200 meter run and 4×100 meter relay and finished second in the 100 meter run.
Four more first place finishes followed in the field events, including men’s and women’s javelin.
The women finished first overall, while the men finished third. The teams will be in action next weekend as they travel to Fayetteville, Ark. for the John McDonnell Invitational.
Baseball
The bats came alive for the midweek back-to-back with Arkansas Pine-Bluff, and the Tigers took one-of-three against Kentucky.
Missouri took the first meeting against UAPB, 13-1, and the second, 15-6. They were the two highest offensive outputs for the Tigers, since the 27-9 win over Eastern Michigan in February.
On Tuesday, Kameron Misner started the scoring with an RBI double. It was the start of a 9-0 run to begin the game for Mizzou.
Misner finished with four RBIs in the game, with the other three coming on a bases-loaded-triple in the fifth inning.
Starter Andy Toelken threw a complete game, allowing just two hits and one run.
On Wednesday night, the Tigers jumped to a 7-0 lead with a big first inning. With three RBI singles leading the way, it looked like Mizzou would cruise to an easy win, but a six-run, top of the third got UAPB back in the game. Later, another seven runs in the bottom of the fourth blew the game open and the Tigers won, 15-6.
Friday was not good to the Tigers, as Kentucky starter Sean Hjelle threw seven shutout innings to propel the Wildcats to a 5-2 win.
The next night, the bats came alive and Trey Harris made three hits and five RBIs to lead the Tigers to victory in a 9-8 thriller.
On Easter Sunday, the bats would not rise again, as Kentucky won 6-1, with catcher Brett Bond driving in the only run with a solo homer.
On Tuesday, the Tigers host Missouri State before traveling to Oxford to take on Ole Miss over the weekend.
Softball
On Tuesday, the team hosted Western Illinois and looked more like its old self, as they swept the double-header, 10-2 and 6-5.
Chloe Rathburn and Natalie Fleming each had three RBIs in the first game to lead Mizzou to a commanding win.
Fleming continued to stay hot from the plate in the second game, as she picked up two more hits and two more RBIs in the win.
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After giving up an early homerun to start the first game against Auburn, Cheyenne Baxter settled in, and three dingers gave Mizzou the win in game one, 6-1.
Auburn took the next two games, 5-4 and 6-1, to win the series.
Softball is in for a busy week as they take on SEMO in a double-header on Tuesday, then host Nebraska-Omaha on Wednesday, before hosting No. 21 Kentucky over the weekend.
Tennis
Over the weekend, the Tigers traveled to Alabama to take on both the Tigers of Auburn and the Crimson Tide.
On Friday, No. 11 Auburn won 4-1, as Mizzou picked up a point for two doubles wins – winning the top two flights, but Auburn took the two, three, five, and six singles matches to secure the win.
The Tigers got their first win since March 10 on Sunday, as they defeated Alabama, 4-3.
Bea Machado Santos won in the top flight singles and was followed by Mackenzy Middlebrooks and Amina Ismail in the four and five flights, respectively.
Wins in the second and third flight singles gave the Tigers the decisive point and a win to close out the regular season before the SEC tournament this coming weekend.