Early in the season, the Missouri Tigers struggled on the softball field as the pitching and defense didn’t live up to preseason expectations.
But the Tigers’ starters have turned it around and coach Larissa Anderson is confident she’s going to continue to get the best of Cierra Harrison.
“She’s been so consistent,” Anderson said. “I mean, since Oklahoma, she’s been unbelievably consistent in coming in and.”
Two performances against Oklahoma might be what jumps out in Anderson’s mind, but if you look into Harrison’s numbers, the consistency has gone even longer.
The Tigers’ No. 2 starter has made nine appearances since a March 13 game against South Dakota State and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of them, while she’s racked up 36 strikeouts in 35 innings.
“It’s a lot better than it was before,” Harrison said of her confidence level. “I would say it just keeps getting, like, boosted a lot. So I think just staying at this place and not going backwards, just keep moving forward.”
Starting with South Dakota State, Harrison had a 5 inning performance allowing four hits and a run, then she struck out eight in five innings of one-run ball against Quinnipiac. She led the Tigers to a Braggin’ Rights win with eight strikeouts across 5.2 innings, while allowing just one run, then she shut out the consistent best team in softball for four innings on March 22. She came back the next day in relief for a one-out appearance, then allowed three runs in the Border War for her only poor performance in the past month and a half.
Since then, she’s pitched 13 innings and allowed just two runs in two outings against Ole Miss and a five-inning shutout performance against Missouri State on Wednesday.
“I know what I’m going to get out of her,” Anderson said. “So it’s, it’s just making sure that she’s fresh, she’s taking care of her body, she’s able to recover so we can utilize her a lot more throughout the week.”
The string of solid outings has led the hard-throwing right hander to a 9-5 record in 20 games as she has produced a 3.46 ERA in 81 innings. She has allowed 82 hits, 40 earned runs and walked 25 batters while striking out 80.
“We’ve been working on some different things,” Harrison said. “And we have continued to just drill, drill, drill certain pitches.”
As the Tigers fight through the final 17 games of the regular season looking to secure a postseason appearance by remaining over .500 for the year, Harrison and No. 1 starter Marissa McCann will need to continue their growth.
It won’t be easy though as Missouri still has to play series against No. 1 Texas, No. 18 Mississippi State, No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 25 Alabama and No. 15
