Larissa Anderson said she isn’t sure that she’s ever seen anything of the sort.
But why was the Missouri softball coach so stunned; so sure she’d just watched fortitude and grit at a level she’d never before come across, let alone coached?
That would be because of Laurin Krings.
Four games; 364 pitches; 25 innings; 15 hits; two earned runs; 24 strikeouts.
That was Krings’ NCAA Columbia Regional, as the Missouri ace carried the Tigers on her shoulders all the way to a super-regional berth over the course of Saturday and Sunday. All four of her starts carried the possibility of MU’s season ending.
But the Tigers are marching on.
“I don't think I've witnessed … a more gutsy, gritty performance by not only an individual player in Laurin Krings, but this team,” Anderson said. “I mean backs up against the wall, losing on Friday and having to win a doubleheader yesterday, a doubleheader today. Just — I'm so proud.
“So proud of all the work that they’ve put in to get to this point, but just the mental toughness to be able to overcome the adversity and just never quit. Never gave in.”
More: Missouri softball walks off Omaha in NCAA Regional championship, will host super regional
Missouri faced elimination four times in two days, sending Indiana and Washington up the road in back-to-back games Saturday before dealing the regional 4-seed Mavericks the same fate with a 5-1 win in the first game and a 1-0, nine-inning walk-off victory Sunday.
The Tigers showed resolve in buckets. Nobody more so than Krings.
“I just know whatever happens I'm gonna give everything I have,” Krings said. “And I know that our team — they give everything they have. We all live to see another day.”
The ace spent a not-insignificant portion of her Saturday night in a cold tub, she said. That’s because she’d already tossed 163 pitches entering Sunday’s championship. Krings met with Anderson on Sunday morning, and decided that she was good to go again.
But after Missouri stayed alive there, Anderson had a different plan for the winner-takes-all second game against Omaha.
It was a plan Krings disagreed with.
Because of the workload the pitcher had already carried, Anderson was going to start Cierra Harrison, Missouri’s No. 2 starter. Harrison was game ready.
Krings came up to Anderson before the game and inquired — perhaps told — about getting the ball again.
“I'm like, ‘OK, stubborn-ox Krings wants the ball, so I'm gonna give it to her,’” Anderson said. “Because that's how determined she was to take this. She's like, ‘I’ve got more in the tank, keep me in the circle.’”
Anderson considered pulling Krings “just about every inning” Sunday, she said. That only happened once, in the opener, after a Krings no-hitter bid ended with a sixth-inning double that Omaha eventually turned into a run to take a 1-0 lead after a throwing error.
Taylor Pannell entered that game, and closed the door with a punchout and pair of self-fielded grounders after Mizzou rode a last-gasp, five-run top of the seventh to stay alive.
The in-game plan for the second leg of Sunday’s championship was pretty similar.
In a matchup that eventually remained scoreless all the way until the ninth inning, Anderson said she told fellow MU pitching coach Molly Anderson that if Mizzou finally opened the scoring in the sixth inning, she was bringing in Pannell once more to close the door.
“Krings (told me), ‘No, she's not. I’m finishing this game,’” Anderson said. “So that's just the determination that she had to complete this game.”
Krings rode that marathon match all the way, with her pitch count steadily creeping above the near-unthinkable 300 mark as the game raced on without a run.
Tired arm?
You’d think, wouldn’t you …
Krings tossed 15 strikeouts in the complete-game victory, which was her 16th win of the season. Six of those Ks came in the seventh inning or later —after the point Anderson had planned to pull her.
And at long last, the pitcher got her just reward.
Madison Walker, a freshman infielder who has battled being dropped from the starting lineup this season, came in to pinch hit in the ninth with two outs on the board. She had center fielder Alex Honnold — who blasted the go-ahead, two-run home run in Game 1 — sitting on third.
With an 0-2 count, Walker ripped a grounder almost directly over the bag at second base, and Honnold headed home and the Missouri bench cleared in long-awaited jubilation.
Walker said she celebrated her 19th birthday this week. She might have given herself the best gift of all, with a berth to a super regional on deck.
“I'm a really big overthinker, (but) I don't even think I had a thought going through my mind on that one,” Walker said. … “I was just gonna put the best swing on a pitch that I could … and it ended up working. I didn't try and oveswing it. I wasn't looking for a home run. I just wanted to get that run home.”
Actually, she might have given Krings the best gift of all.
A rest.
“I mean, we just see our pitcher dominating, and it just fires you up from the dugout,” Walker said. “So, you just want to keep working as hard as you can. We didn't want her to throw nine innings. We wanted to end it earlier, but she kept going, which gave us strength.”
Mizzou is returning to the super regional round, where it will face No. 10 national seed Duke — winner of its home NCAA Durham Regional — beginning either Thursday or Friday at Mizzou Softball Stadium.
Krings got them to that stage.
So, what’s the plan? How’s the arm?
Krings turned to her coach, who was beaming over her left shoulder in the post-regional media availability.
“We’re gonna have two off days,” Krings proposed, “right?”
Seems like a fair trade.
More: ‘Gutsy’ Missouri softball survives two elimination games in regional. How the Tigers dug deep
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Laurin Krings fought to carry Missouri softball to super regional
