COLUMBIA, Mo. – Head Coach Larissa Anderson announced the full 2021 Mizzou Softball schedule Friday. The schedule includes 24 games against teams ranked in preseason polls.
The No. 23/24 Mizzou Tigers will open the season at the JoAnne Graf Classic (Feb. 12-14) in Tallahassee, Florida. In the tournament, the Tigers will play five games against Florida A&M (two), Memphis (two) and host No. 12 Florida State (one). Larissa Anderson is 14-2 at Mizzou’s head coach in games played in the state of Florida.
The following weekend, Mizzou will travel to Waco, Texas for the Getterman Classic (Feb 19-21) where they will again play five games on the weekend. On the weekend, the Tigers will face off with No. 22/18 Baylor, Prairie View A&M and Northwestern State. Each team will play each opponent one time before being placed into seeds, based on their record in the round-robin portion. Once the teams are seeded, the first seed will play the fourth seed and the second seed will play the third. The winners will advance to the championship game, while the losers will play in a third-place game.
The Tigers will hit the road once again and travel to Mobile, Alabama for the South Alabama Invitational (Feb. 26-28). Mizzou will take on Middle Tennessee State (twice), South Alabama, Northwestern State and SIU-Edwardsville in a five-game tournament.
Mizzou will then play in their fourth-consecutive tournament to start the season in Norman, Oklahoma for the Courtyard Marriott Tournament (March 5-7). The Tigers open the tournament against Louisiana-Monroe, representing the first time Mizzou has faced the Warhawks. In the second game of the tournament, the Tigers face a tough test against the host school, and former Big 12 rival, No. 4 Oklahoma. The following day, Mizzou will face Sam Houston State before moving in to tournament play.
For the final tournament of the regular season, the Tigers will open their home slate with the Mizzou Tournament (March 12-14). Kent State, Drake and former Big 12 foe Iowa State will travel to Columbia for the weekend tournament. Mizzou will open the tournament on Friday will one game against Kent State. Saturday, the Tigers will play a doubleheader with the aforementioned Cyclones. To close out the tournament, Mizzou will face off with Drake twice on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers will open SEC play at No. 14 Georgia for a three-game series (March 19-21) before returning home for a midweek doubleheader with Western Illinois (March 24). Auburn will then travel to Columbia for Mizzou’s first home SEC series (March 26-28).
Mizzou will then play the next four games on the road, starting with a short trip down the road to St. Louis to face off with the Billikens in Tuesday matchup (March 30). Following the midweek contest, the Tigers will travel to the other Columbia and take on SEC foe No. 19 South Carolina in a three-game set (April 1-3). This series will open on Thursday and conclude on Saturday.
Returning home, Mizzou will open their longest homestand of the season with eight games in a row at Mizzou Softball Stadium. To start the homestand, No. 5 LSU will travel to Mid-Missouri for a three-game series (April 9-11). Next, another edition of the Border War will take place with the rival Jayhawks traveling to Mizzou for a midweek game (April 13). Mizzou will take on No. 20/22 Mississippi State in a weekend series (April 16-18), before finishing off the homestand with a midweek game with Kansas City (April 20).
The Tigers will finish the regular season with three series against SEC rivals, with the first against neighboring No. 18/21 Arkansas in Fayetteville (April 24-26). This series will be played from Saturday to Monday. The following weekend, Mizzou will host No. 7/6 Florida in the last home series of the regular season (April 30-May 2). The Tigers will travel to No. 23 Tennessee to close out the regular season (May 7-9).
The SEC Tournament will be in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from May 12-15. Makeup games for postponed SEC series will likely be scheduled May 3-5. Schedule is subject to change throughout the season.
Visit MUTigers.com for the latest information on all things Mizzou Softball. Tiger fans can also follow the program on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@MizzouSoftball).
