COLUMBIA, Mo. – The No. 11/13 University of Missouri softball program (10-0) treks to Cathedral City, California, for the 2024 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic Thursday through Saturday at the Big League Dreams Complex.
Mizzou will face San Diego State (7 p.m., CT | 5 p.m., PT) and Wisconsin (9:30 p.m., CT | 7:30 p.m., PT) Thursday before taking on Central Florida (7:30 p.m., CT | 5:30 p.m., PT) and California State Fullerton (10 p.m., CT | 8 p.m., PT) Friday. The Tigers will wrap the Classic Saturday with a top-25 meeting against No. 22 Baylor set for 10 p.m., CT | 8 p.m., PT.
Thursday’s games will be played on Yankee Stadium, while Friday’s games will be contested on Fenway Park. Saturday’s finale will be on Wrigley Field.
All five games at the 2024 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic will be streamed on FloSoftball.
Mizzou was also ranked in all four polls heading into the weekend after first appearing last week. The Tigers enter the third week of the season #11 in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll, and #13 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll. Mizzou also was #8 and #11 in the Softball America and D1Softball polls, respectively.
The 10-0 start to the 2024 season is the best start for Missouri since the Tigers opened the 2009 campaign 12-0 en route to a 50-12 finish.
Mizzou ranks first in the SEC this season with a .985 fielding percentage.
SCHEDULE
- #11/13 Missouri vs. San Diego State, Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m., CT | 5 p.m., PT | Yankee Stadium
- #11/13 Missouri vs. Wisconsin, Thursday, Feb. 22 at 9:30 p.m., CT | 7:30 p.m., PT | Yankee Stadium
- #11/13 Missouri vs. Central Florida, Friday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m., CT | 5:30 p.m., PT | Fenway Park
- #11/13 Missouri vs. California State Fullerton, Friday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m., CT | 8 p.m., PT | Fenway Park
- #11/13 Missouri vs. #22 Baylor, Saturday, Feb. 24 at 10 p.m., CT | 8 p.m., PT | Wrigley Field
2024 MARY NUTTER COLLEGIATE CLASSIC
Location: Cathedral City, Calif. (Big League Dreams)
Live Stats:
Thursday: San Diego State | Wisconsin
Friday: UCF | Cal State Fullerton
Saturday: Baylor
Video: FloSoftball
Twitter: @MizzouSoftball
Notes: Missouri
SERIES HISTORY
- Missouri leads the all-time series with San Diego State, 5-2. Head coach Larissa Anderson is 1-0 in her career against the Aztecs.
- The Tigers and SDSU last faced in 2022 with Mizzou prevailing, 7-6, in eight innings on Feb. 26.
- Missouri holds a 4-2 advantage against Wisconsin. Anderson is 1-2 as a head coach against the Badgers.
- The two teams last faced off Feb. 12, 2022, with Mizzou edging Wisconsin, 8-1.
- The Tigers lead UCF, 2-1, in the all-time series after Mizzou overcame the Knights, 11-8, in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 15, 2023.
- Anderson is 2-1 against UCF.
- Cal State Fullerton leads Mizzou, 6-3, in the all-time series with Anderson having one win (1-0) against the Titans.
- The two teams last met March 17, 2019, with Missouri winning, 7-4.
- Mizzou leads Baylor in the all-time series, 31-19, while Anderson is 1-0 against the Bears.
- The Tigers run-ruled Baylor, 9-1, in five innings in the most recent meeting on Feb. 8, 2020.
LAST TIME AT MARY NUTTER
- Missouri went 3-2 at the 2023 edition of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic Feb. 23-25.
- The Tigers opened the Classic with back-to-back run-rule wins over Cal Poly (9-1) and BYU (11-3).
- Missouri then lost tight contests to Oregon State (3-2) and No. 22/24 Oregon (6-4) before run-ruling Long Beach State (9-0, six innings) to cap the tournament.
2024 TRACY BEARD COLLEGE CLASSIC RECAP
- Missouri continued its perfect opening to the 2024 season, reeling off five wins at the 2024 Tracy Beard College Classic to improve to 10-0.
- Cierra Harrison picked up her first career no-hitter in the opener with Texas A&M-Commerce (1-0).
- Missouri then edged South Dakota State, 4-3, in the first of two meetings over the Classic. Laurin Krings improved to 5-0 in 2024 with the win.
- Lilly Whitten posted her first career win in her first career start as a Tiger, leading Mizzou to a 7-1 win over South Dakota State.
- Missouri also posted double-digit wins over North Texas including an 11-2 run-rule win to conclude the tournament.
- Stefania Abruscato made her first career starts (4) over the tournament, batting .333 with five walks.
- Through two weeks, Alex Honnold is batting .355 (.581 slugging percentage, four multi-hit games) with eight RBI (two multi-RBI games). She notched a pair of doubles in Texas.
HARRISON IN THE CIRCLE
- Cierra Harrison led Mizzou in the circle at the Tracy Beard College Classic, registering a pair of wins including her first career no-hitter. She pitched 13.1 innings over North Texas’ tournament, allowing no runs and two hits with 12 strikeouts.
- Harrison opened the Classic with a 1-0 no-hitter over Texas A&M-Commerce. She posted her first career seven-inning shutout and matched a career-high eight strikeouts for the no-hitter.
- On the heels of her first career no-hitter, Harrison then allowed only two hits while striking out four over six innings in a 10-0 win over North Texas.
- Harrison then utilized one pitch to retire the lone North Texas batter she faced Sunday in the finale, securing the win for Mizzou.
- Harrison boasts a 4-0 mark with 13 strikeouts in 2024. She is limiting opposing batters to a .061 batting average.
- The Lee’s Summit, Missouri, sophomore paces the NCAA with a 0.00 ERA over 21.1 innings and five appearances. She also leads the country with a hits allowed per seven innings rate of 1.31.
GALLY
- Maddie Gallagher notched a career-best 4-for-4 day at the plate in the first game with North Texas on Saturday. She also chipped in a run and an RBI in the game.
- With four hits against UNT, Gallagher notched her 100th career collegiate hit.
- Gallagher finished the Tracy Beard College Classic, hitting .500 and paces the Tigers at the plate (.429) through two weeks.
OUR LEADOFF HITTER
- Jenna Laird chipped in a .455 weekend over the Tracy Beard College Classic, scoring eight times to go with four RBI and three steals.
- The senior from East Meadow, New York, extended her reached base streak to 10 games (four-game hitting streak).
- The Tigers leadoff hitter has scored in all 10 games this season, having totaled 15 runs thus far.
- She ranks 15th Nationally with 1.50 runs per game in 2024.
MADISON WALKER
- Freshman first baseman Madison Walker chipped in a .308 weekend in Denton, Texas, this past week.
- She notched her first career double, while adding two runs and an RBI at the Tracy Beard College Classic
- Walker concluded the tournament, with a career-best 2-for-3 in the finale with North Texas.
FIRST GRAND SALAMI
- Sophomore Katie Chester knocked her first career grand slam Sunday in Mizzou’s 11-2 run-rule win over North Texas.
- It marked the first Tigers grand slam since Kara Daly notched one on Feb. 23, 2023, against Cal Poly.
- The home run was Katie Chester’s second of the season (fifth in her career). She finished Sunday with a career-best four RBI, going 1-for-3 with a run.
- Chester, a Liberty, Missouri, native, is batting .318 in 2024 with eight RBI and a .636 slugging percentage.
WHITTEN MAKES MIZZOU DEBUTS
- Lilly Whitten recorded her first collegiate win in her first collegiate start and appearance in a 7-1 victory over South Dakota State on Feb. 17.
- After redshirting in 2023, the Tunas, Missouri, native, finished her collegiate debut with a line of 6.0 innings pitched, allowing one run on six hits, and eight strikeouts for the win.
- Jayci Kruse made her first appearance of the 2024 season, and the fourth of her Mizzou career, collecting one strikeout over the final inning to secure the win.
ON THE DALY
- Junior third baseman Kara Daly is three hits away from 100 in her career as a Tiger. She’d be the second Mizzou player to reach the career threshold after Maddie Gallagher reached the milestone in Denton, Texas.
- Daly is currently hitting .300 in 2024 with a .600 slugging percentage, seven RBI, seven runs and two homers.
RUN-RULE WINS
- Mizzou picked up its third run-rule win of the season in the Tracy Beard College Classic finale with an 11-2 decision over host, North Texas.
- Missouri secured the win with a seven-run fourth that featured a grand slam from Katie Chester.
2023 RECAP
- Mizzou enters the 2024 season on the heels of its 16th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
- The Tigers finished the 2023 season with a 35-26 mark, including a 7-17 in SEC play. With its 2023 record, Missouri has registered 35 wins in four of the last five seasons (2020 COVID-19 shortened season was the only time the Tigers didn’t meet the threshold in that span).
- During the 2023 campaign, Missouri totaled 51 home runs, while logging 75 doubles to go with 310 runs as a team.
- On the dirt, Mizzou tallied a .978 fielding percentage. The clip ranks second in program history, after the Tigers’ surpassed their previous .976 fielding percentage from 2022.
LOOKING AHEAD
- Missouri next wraps non-conference tournament play at the Big Red Invitational, facing Wichita State and host, Nebraska, twice each March 2-3 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
