Sami Fagan is greeted at home after her first inning home run (photo/Mizzou Athletics)
Kelsea Roth hit a two-run double in the fifth inning to help lead Mizzou Softball to the NCAA Columbia Regional championship game after a 5-3 win over Kansas on Saturday.
The Tigers (41-14), 2-0 in the Regional, play again Sunday, May 17, at noon against a team to be determined. The Jayhawks (39-14) will take on either Louisville or Indiana State at approximately 8:30 p.m., Saturday.
Sophomore P Tori Finucane got the win to up her 2015 record to 21-8.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth, sophomore RF Emily Crane singled and 2B Sami Fagan walked. Freshman DP Amanda Sanchez. bounced a single up the middle to score Crane from second tie the game at 3-3. Roth laced a double down the third base line, scoring both Fagan and pinch runner Kayla Kingsley for a 5-3 lead that the Tigers held onto.
“Well they had me worried for a while, but the surge in the fifth inning – three really good at-bats in a row by Crane, Fagan and Sanchez and then Roth, I guess that’s four with the double down the line. But those were four really good at-bats,” said coach Ehren Earleywine.
Sanchez has now tied Mizzou’s freshman RBI record with her total of 55 matching Micaela Minner’s mark from her 2005 season.