The Girls Are for Missouri

On the first day of the SEC Championships, the games are underway, and Game 1 is complete. No. 16 Missouri fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Now you may be wondering why you should care about this, the team game in this tournament 3-27. They are the team that keeps trying hard and giving it their all and still falls short of winning, especially in a conference of this caliber, mostly made up of younger players learning how to play in the SEC.

In college baseball and sports in general, it's normal to go through a rebuild and play through adversity before becoming great again. Sometimes, these freshmen don't realize it, and it's not just a matter of becoming a champion team overnight.

But everyone loves a good underdog story, one that defies the odds to come back from a rut and win over whoever they are facing, because by the stroke of luck, the team comes together and makes some magic happen.

Now, let's look at Missouri's season before two weekends ago. They swept Texas A&M, and what an underdog story that was. This team, which had started 0-24, was now able to beat the Aggies, who are objectively a solid team, and that was headline material.

The team, with only about half of its members being juniors or seniors, faces a severe lack of mature play and the ability to handle the pressures of a full spring season, weekend after weekend. However, these boys keep fighting to win, remaining positive despite all these challenges, which pulls at everyone's heartstrings.

Now, let's fast-forward to today at 9:30 a.m. The first team to start, every empath would want them to beat the Crimson Tide and become the No. 16 team that was able to advance to the second round, despite not being expected to.

Missouri struck first and gained an early lead, which gave them hope of securing the win. However, unfortunately, the Crimson Tide wanted it just a bit more than the Tigers did, and as the final score of 4-1 appeared on the scoreboard.

The Missouri Tigers' season was officially over as the Tide celebrated, while the Tigers slowly left the field, their faces tear-streaked with the seniors, as the season and their careers they had worked so hard for came to a close.

Now, if you're like me, this was heartbreaking to watch. Even though my job is to report on baseball and it's part of the tournament, it's still so sad to see these boys walking away crying. Someone cutting onions nearby? It sure felt like it when Missouri was walking off the field.

Immediately after this, the team will head back to Columbia, Missouri, where summer for these college boys can officially start. But that's not what they want; every athlete's dream is to have the deep post-season run to get the chance of Omaha to claim the World Series title.

So, even though Missouri lost in the first game of the tournament, there is every girl out there who wants that underdog story from a team fighting so hard to win and to keep the hope alive.

The girls are for Missouri this season and every season after this.