Welcome to the Morning Commute

Today we’re talking about the diamond sports and how one is still kicking while the other… not so much.

We’ll start with Mizzou Softball, which kept its fledgling postseason hopes alive by going up against one of the best pitchers in the country and scraping their way back to a .500 record. From Karen’s analysis (Dylan wrote the recap on Saturday):

So hats off to the Missouri Tigers; they got it done, and now the outlook is looking much rosier. Win one game in the SEC Tournament and you’re into NCAA Tournament and we can save that uncomfortable chitchat about what’s been going on with this program the past few seasons for another day. That, and I won’t have to share the NCAA tourney appearances photo of center field with a glaring hole in it where the years 2025 & 2026 should be.

“You take everything we said we needed to work on in the last games, and we bottled it up and put it together in this game,” Mizzou head coach Larissa Anderson said on Saturday afternoon.

So now the Tigers need to win at least one game in the SEC Tournament to make the postseason. You know I think I’ll go out on a limb – they should win more than one! I think that should do the trick.

On the other side of things, well… let’s just say the picture isn’t as rosey. Kam Durnin homered twice to cap a .500 series, but the Tigers still got whooped 14-4 to drop their third straight game and drop to 21-26 on the season and 4-20 in conference play. They’ll close their home slate against Vanderbilt next weekend. The Commodores, usually a powerhouse, have struggled this season. Perhaps a nice opportunities for the Tigers to gather some momentum heading into the final weekend series against Texas?

Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+

• In which Mizzou Gymnastics add a specialist to the rotation via the transfer portal:

The incoming fifth year, who spent the 2026 on the sidelines after a season-ending lower body injury and subsequent surgery, entered the portal on April 6, citing the desire to pursue new academic and athletic opportunities. In three years in Corvallis, Jennifer was primarily a bars and beam specialist with career highs of 9.95 on bars and 9.925 on beam.