Athens, GA. — Missouri softball’s 2025 season came to a quiet close Tuesday afternoon as the Tigers fell 1-0 to No. 17/19 Ole Miss in the opening round of the SEC Tournament.
With the loss, Mizzou finishes the year at 25-32, falling well short of the .500 win percentage required for NCAA Tournament consideration. It marks the program’s first absence from the NCAA Regionals since 2006, ending an 18-year streak.
The lone run of the game came early, when Ole Miss’s Persey Llamas drove in Jaden Pone with a double to left-center in the first inning. That was all the Rebels needed, thanks to the dominant pitching of Brianna Lopez.
Lopez was lights out for Ole Miss—just as she had been against Missouri earlier in the season. She gave up only three hits over seven innings and struck out six, with five of those coming on devastating changeups. In two starts this year against Mizzou, Lopez surrendered a combined six hits and no runs.
Despite a strong showing from Mizzou starter Marissa McCann—who allowed just five hits and one earned run through six innings—the Tigers couldn’t generate enough offense to stay alive. Taylor Pannell came on in the seventh and retired the side on just four pitches, but it was too little, too late.
Missouri had a final opportunity in the seventh, putting runners on first and second via back-to-back walks. But the late push fizzled when Abbie Wilhelm struck out looking, ending the game—and the Tigers’ season—with the bat on her shoulder.
Ole Miss, a program that made an unlikely run to the SEC title as a No. 7 seed in 2017, moves on in the bracket. Meanwhile, Missouri ends the 2025 campaign with more questions than answers and a postseason drought it hasn’t experienced in nearly two decades.
