March 1, 2009
Box Score
San Diego, Calif. - The 12th-ranked Missouri softball team rebounded from back-to-back losses at the San Diego Classic by blanking San Diego, 9-0, in five innings. With the win, the Tigers improve to 13-2 on the year and finish the three-day tournament with a 3-2 record.
Missouri broke the scoreless tie by putting up six runs in the top of the third. San Diego pitcher Kaitlin Healy walked three straight batters loading the bases for rightfielder Kathryn Poet (Tujunga, Calif.). Poet powered a RBI single up the middle off of relief pitcher Katie Jo Nelson again loading the bases for junior Julie Silver (Chesterfield, Mo.). Hit by pitch, Silver took her place at first base, while freshman Ashley Fleming ISilex, Mo.) advanced home. With the bases loaded one more time, redshirt junior Gina Schneider took her turn at the plate and was also hit by pitch, sending designed player Micaela Minner (Sanger, Texas) home from third. Senior Andee Allen (Barnhart, Mo.) drove in two more Missouri runs with her single up the middle, while eight hole hitter Katie Milles' (St. Louis, Mo.) single pushed across the sixth and final run of the inning.
Together, the Tigers combined for eight hits, while holding the Toreros to only four. Freshman Kristin Nottelmann (Fenton, Mo.) earned her fourth win of the campaign, after throwing a complete game shutout and striking out seven batters.
The Tigers tacked on three runs in the sixth, with two coming across on Minner's home run. Her first long ball of the season, it marks the 33rd of her career. Minner currently sits in third in the Missouri career home runs record book. The win by run rule is Missouri's sixth of the season, while the shutout is the eighth of the year.
As a team, the Tigers are averaging .332 on the season, while the pitching staff owns a collective 0.92 ERA and has held its opponents to a .201 average.
Missouri Head Coach Ehren Earleywine and his Tiger squad will return home and host Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in a Wednesday, March 4, doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. (CT). Game two of the series is slated for a 4 p.m. (CT) first pitch.
