Mizzou Links, 5-7-07

• Well, the dream died one game away for Mizzou Softball. Two Mizzou errors led to three runs in the 5th inning for Nebraska, and the Lady Tigers came up short, 3-1. A win would have given them the Big XII co-title, but they'll have to settle for a 3rd-place finish instead. Not bad for a team picked 8th in the preseason.
• The Trib's Dave Matter has a nice Q&A session with softball coach Ehren Earlywine.
  
  

  Q: Did you expect to contend for the conference title immediately like this team has?
  
  A: One of the big things in opening up opportunities to win the conference was Cat Osterman leaving. When she left Texas, it all of a sudden became an even playing field for everybody. I didn’t know for sure how good we were until I got to practice and got to watch for two or three weeks. At that point I said, ‘OK, the talent is here. If we can just get comfortable in the system, have fun and play motivated, then we will have a chance.’ I didn’t know we’d be in first place coming into the last weekend, but I knew we had a chance

• Some VERY encouraging news from the weekend was Mizzou Baseball going down to Austin and taking two of three from a smoking hot Longhorn team, their ninth series win in ten conference tries. Freshman Trevor Coleman has been an absolute godsend for this offense. The series win a) should bring the Tigers some national attention, being that their relatively weak schedule has been the excuse poll voters have used for not ranking them higher, b) brings Mizzou to within 2.5 games of Texas in the Big XII standings, and c) keeps Mizzou one game ahead of OSU, who swept OU this weekend. Can they catch Texas? Not likely. Texas would need to lose at least 2 of 3 against ATM, while Mizzou would basically need to sweep OU (in Columbia) and OSU (in Stillwater). Not impossible, but not likely.