BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON
Arkansas softball got the scoring started Saturday with two second-inning solo home runs, but a pair of Missouri roommates ended it with two of their own.
Maddie Snider tied it for the Tigers with a lead off homer in the bottom of eighth and Kara Daly served up a walk off solo blast in a 4-3 win over the No. 12 Razorbacks (38-15, 14-9).
It was a jolt of electricity for Mississippi State (32-23, 6-17), who opened 1-10 in league action
“It’s everything,” Daly said of the comeback win. “It’s momentum. We have just been grinding and trying to wreck people’s seasons, honestly. And we are just going to keep leaning into that. It feels pretty awesome.”
Daly was happy for her roommate Snider, Missouri’s ninth-place hitter.
“For her, that is amazing,” Daly said. “She started us off that inning and has so much power. We know that and it was just following up with that and we did.”
Arkansas, who won Friday night’s game 9-0, will be looking to win its 12th straight road series with a victory in Sunday’s 1 p.m. game in Columbia.
The Razorbacks jumped in front 2-0 in the second when Cylie Halvorson and Kristina Foreman hit back-to-back solo home runs off Missouri’s Laurin Krings.
It stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth when the Tigers scratched together a couple of runs.
Hannah Camenzind pitched the first 4 2/3 innings for Arkansas, allowing two runs on four hits before before being relived by Delce (20-7).
Arkansas took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth when Reagan Johnson singled, moved up to second on a wild pitch, to third on Raigan Kramer’s sacrifice and scored on Rylin Hedgecock’s sacrifice fly.
That made a winner out of Taylor Pinnell (1-0), who relieved Krings and got the final out of the tp off the eighth.
Krings retired 16 of the next 18 batters after giving up the back-to-back homers.
“It was amazing, just getting batters out,” Daly said. “These Arkansas hitters are very well and she kept them off balance and she did her job.”
Photo courtesy of the University of Arkansas
