Road Trip Diaries: The Border Showdown in CoMo

National College Softball Editor Justin McLeod is on the road for the 2023 college softball season. He compiles stories and happenings along the way; these are the Road Trip Diaries.

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It was unusually breezy in Columbia, Missouri on Wednesday. The wind blew, even howled, throughout Missouri’s midweek game against Kansas.

The Border Showdown is a celebrated rivalry, one that caused more than 2,300 fans to show up to University Field on Wednesday night. The two teams are in similar positions this season: Potentially better than their win-loss record shows, but with some struggles in conference play and an unknown postseason future.

Personally, the highlight of the night was the defense outside the lines. Yes, there were a couple of plays made in foul territory, but I’m talking specifically about the Mizzou fans who knew how to make a play on a foul ball. Three times a fan in the crowd caught a foul ball on the fly; one lady (a player’s mom, based on press box polling) made the snag over a railing, while a man later saved his forward seatmate with a nifty grab on a sinking popup.

For a short while, I thought the crowd defense would be the story of the night. Mizzou got to Kansas starter Kasey Hamilton in the first inning, scoring three runs in the frame that included a 2-run shot by Alex Honnold.

Honnold, by the way, is quietly having a pretty insane year. Following Wednesday, she boasts a .425 batting average, a 1.392 OPS, ten dingers, ten doubles, a team-leading three triples, and 16 stolen bases. I’ve been really impressed with the well-roundedness of Honnold’s game this season – she also leads the team with 32 walks earned; no other Tiger has walked more than 19 times.

After that first inning, Missouri’s offense quieted down. They went 1-2-3 in each of the next four innings, including the 5th that started with a Riley Frizell single and ended when Jenna Laird grounded into a double play. That seems to have been the story of the Mizzou offense this season, very hot or very cold and capable of changing temperatures in the span of a half-inning.

What’s more, the Tigers are not without talent. Honnold has been a breakout star; Laird, even in a “down” year as a junior, is batting .351 with 26 RBIs. And then there’s Wednesday night’s hero, Julia Crenshaw. Since moving behind the plate mid-season, Crenshaw has stayed solid behind the plate but has seen her offense struggle a bit.

On Wednesday, though, there was more grit and determination than anything. In the top of the 6th, Crenshaw took a pitch right off her kneecap behind the plate. She had a pronounced limp for a few moments, as she took some time to walk it off, and after the game, she referred to the incident as “just a little dead leg, you know? It hurts for a minute and then you’re good to go.”

She was, indeed, good to go. The fourth batter scheduled to hit in the bottom of the sixth, and stepping to plate with Kara Daly standing on second base after a double, Crenshaw cranked her own double to left field that scored Daly and ultimately saw Crenshaw wind up at third.

I’ve talked a lot about the hosting and victorious Tigers here, but I also walked away with a better understanding of what this Kansas team is made of. Or, rather, more evidence of what I knew the Jayhawks to be as a squad. For starters, they’re gritty. Hamilton, the pitcher, gave up those three runs in the first but was ridiculously effective for the rest of her outing. She was solid in the circle, something that softball audiences got to see in prime time last weekend when she piloted KU to a win over Texas in Austin.

Hamilton’s a solid arm and her poise is excellent; outside of her work in the circle, at one point, she called off all of the surrounding infielders and caught a pop-up at the edge of the circle. Just as soon as the ball was in her glove and the catch secured, she dropped the ball on the ground and walked to the dugout, as cool, calm, and collected as ever. Her pitching was solid, but her poise caught my attention as much as anything else.

The fight in the Jayhawk lineup was another piece of the puzzle that caught me. In that afore-mentioned win over Texas last Friday, the Jayhawks kept scoring runs late to cement the win; they didn’t hold fast on an early lead and expect it to stick. I came into Wednesday night looking for first-hand evidence of that fight and I found out. Down 3-0 after the first inning, and with Jordan Weber pitching pretty effectively, it would have been easy for the Jayhawks to tuck tail and run.

In years past, I think that might have been what happened. On Wednesday night, it was not – instead, the KU lineup came clawing back. Haleigh Harper hit her first home run of the season in the third inning, then the Jayhawks sent seven batters to the plate in the sixth inning, scoring twice, on a Lyric Moore RBI single and on an error by Laird at shortstop.

It was an incredibly hard-fought inning by Kansas’ offense; even Ashlyn Anderson’s strikeout that led to out #2 right before the run-scoring error, was a 10-pitch at-bat that went from a 1-2 count to 3-2 with four pitches fouled off.

On paper, both teams’ seasons have not gone the way they would like for them to go. Subpar records in conference play and some tough losses along the way certainly aren’t fun, but make no mistake – both Missouri and Kansas are teams capable of pulling off quality wins and capable of playing quality softball. The season has just a few weeks left, but those traits could serve both teams well down the stretch and in the final push for postseason opportunities.