Arkansas-Missouri SEC softball tournament game suspended until Friday at 9 a.m.

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

Arkansas got to play Thursday at the SEC softball tournament at Auburn, but the Razorbacks didn’t get to finish.

Weather delayed and eventually suspended the game until Friday morning at 9 a.m. with fifth-seeded Missouri leading fourth-seded Arkansas 2-1 in the top of the fifth.

The contest was originally scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., but did not get started until 8:05 because of weather and then was suspended at 9:24.

The single-elimination tournament at Jane B. Moore Field is scheduled to have the conclusion of Arkansas-Missouri and four other games played on Friday.

Arkansas third baseman Hannah Gammill’s solo home run on the ninth pitch of her at bat in the bottom of fourth had deadlocked the contest 1-1.

But the Tigers answered right back with a run on Jenna Laird’s RBI double that made it 2-1.

It was the second of three consecutive hits against Arkansas starting pitcher Morgan Leinstock with Kayley Lingler singling before and Alex Honnold doing so afterwards.

That ended the night for Leinstock and brought in Arkansas reliever Robyn Herron, but the game was delayed after she threw two strikes.

Missouri (41-14, 13-11), who scored a first-inning run on Maddie Gallagher’s double, will have runners at the corners and nobody out with Gallagher up with when play resumes on Friday.

Arkansas (36-15, 14-10) was held hitless by Missouri starting pitcher Cierra Harrison for the first 9 batters of the game before Reagan Smith reached infield on an infield single in the third and Nia Carter also singled.

But Harrison fanned Razorback slugger Bri Ellis (14 home runs) to end the threat.

Gammill’s homer, her 12th of the season, came with two outs and on the ninth pitch of her at bat against Harrison.

The winner of the Arkansas-Missouri game, which will be on the SEC Network on Friday morning, will move on to face eighth-seeded LSU in a semifinal later in the day.

LSU, which beat Alabama 2-1 in 14 innings on Wednesday, eliminated top-seed and back-to-back SEC champion Tennessee 2-1 on Thursday.

Following the conclusion of the Tigers-Razorbacks game, seventh-seeded Georgia will face second-seeded Florida.

The final quarterfinal will have 11th-seed South Carolina and third-seeded Texas A&M meeting.

The championship game is currently set for Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN2, which will also have the semifinals.

Photo courtesy of Razorbacks Communications