BRANSON MO NEWS: Early in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader, Missouri freshman pitcher Lauren Rice jammed a Creighton hitter whom fouled the pitch off the handle of her bat.Junior third baseman Amanda Sanchez charged the foul ball and made a throw on the run to first. Although her effort on the dead ball didn’t count in the box score, she jogged back toward Missouri’s bench, chuckling and joking with her teammates in the dugout.A few innings later, Sanchez flawlessly executed the same running throw to first to keep a perfect game intact. It typified her infectious calm and cool approach, as the Tigers went on to trounce Creighton 8-0 in six innings via run-rule and Drake 10-3 at Mizzou Softball Stadium.
“We’ve been calling her the ‘legend,'” junior left fielder Regan Nash said of Sanchez. “It’s a name that has been going around that we think is kind of funny, but it’s really fitting for her right now.”Sanchez, the Southeastern Conference’s leader in batting average (.540) and home runs (7) entering the day, had a frustrating time at the plate in game one against Creighton.She walked four times, two of which were of the intentional variety, and consequently didn’t register an official at-bat. Sanchez made the most of her time on the basepaths, though, scoring the Tigers’ game-clinching eighth run.Drake (12-7) pitched to Sanchez once in game two, and she mashed a double off the top of the left field fence to plate a pair of runs. The Bulldogs then quickly stole a page from Creighton’s playbook and walked her three more times.”We were joking that she’s Barry Bonds right now,” interim coach Gina Fogue said. “She’s either getting walked, intentionally walked or she’s up there getting a double or a hit, and hitting it hard.”Instead, …
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