COLUMBIA | Rhea Taylor and her Missouri softball teammates had just warmed up on Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla., and were settling onto the visitors’ dugout bench when Tigers coach Ehren Earleywine began what was far from a pep talk.
“Look, girls,” Taylor remembers Earleywine saying. “Chelsea’s hurt. Expect the worst. You hope for the best, but she’ll probably be out.”
For the season? Missouri’s All-American pitcher, Chelsea Thomas? She has a stress fracture in her pitching arm?
And then Earleywine delivered the challenge. The Tigers could pout. Or they could keep on moving on.
After a 5-0 victory over Nebraska in the final Big 12 Conference game Sunday, the Tigers — who open Big 12 tournament play against Oklahoma State at 2 p.m. Saturday in Oklahoma City — have moved on to a 44-10 record and No. 9 ranking in the USA Today/NFCA Division I poll.
And they’ve done it in spite of — and perhaps just a bit because of — the fact Thomas has not pitched since March 21, six days before the pivotal dugout sermon when Earleywine laid out the harsh reality for a team looking to return to the College World Series for a second straight season.
“We all kind of took that and ran with it,” Taylor said. “We beat Oklahoma 11-5 that next game.”
After falling behind 5-0.
Junior catcher Catherine Lee began the comeback with a two-out, three-run home run to dead center in the third inning. Sophomore first baseman Ashley Fleming capped an eight-run sixth with a three-run homer.
Senior Jana Hainey, freshman Lindsey Muller and sophomore Kristin Nottleman combined to throw seven innings of five-hit ball.
Thomas went to the sidelines with a 12-1 record, a 1.72 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings. And since then?
“We’re a team, and we’ve really come together,” said Lee, adding the Tigers hope to be a host during NCAA Tournament play, inclusion in that tournament being a foregone conclusion as the highest ranked of five Big 12 teams in the USA Today/NFCA top 25.
Taylor, a junior center fielder, emerged from a two-game sweep of Baylor in MU’s final home series of the regular season on May 1-2 with a Big 12-best .460 batting average.
Fleming was chosen USA Softball Player of the Week after going 11 for 13 in five games, hitting three doubles and two home runs, scoring seven runs and driving in eight.
Nottleman has an 18-6 record, Hainey a 9-2 mark and Muller a 5-1 record.
On a bus ride home from a recent series at Iowa State, Earleywine asked Thomas how her arm was feeling.
“She said, ‘You know, in the last two or three days this thing is really starting to feel better,’ ” Earleywine recounted. “ ‘I’ve got full range of motion. And the pain is really minimal.’ ”
Earleywine reiterated that the pain would have to be completely gone before he would allow Thomas to cut loose and really test the healing of the stress fracture.
“Until the pain is completely gone,” he explained, “there’s still a stress fracture.”
Even if a bone scan or MRI shows the fracture is healed, Earleywine might not use Thomas in the Big 12 tournament. Returning to pitch now would cost Thomas a complete season of eligibility, eliminating the possibility of a medical redshirt ruling.
“I’d say the chance is slim,” Earleywine said of a possible return this season, “but I think the chance is there.”
Taylor contends the outlook for the team has not changed since that afternoon in the dugout at Oklahoma.
“We can’t focus on hoping that Chelsea comes back this year,” Taylor said. “We have to focus on the now.
“We have Jana, Kristin, Lindsey. We have to focus on that.
“It’s not all about just thinking about just one person coming back. It’s a team sport.”
To reach Mike DeArmond, call 816-234-4353 or send e-mail to mdearmond@kcstar.com
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/09/1935006/mizzou-softball-roars-on-without.html#ixzz0nYO3yFAs
