Washington 1, Missouri 0: Softball season ends like last softball season ended

One of our ongoing mottos at Rock M Nation is that we should never, ever waste an opportunity to celebrate something, and we should never, ever forget how awesome and hard winning is. The reason is simple: You're not always going to win.

When Missouri made the Women's College World Series for a third straight year in 2011, the Tigers were the only team in the country who could boast that. It's really hard to make the WCWS, and that's been proven the last two years. Despite offensive improvement overall, Mizzou lost at home in the Super Regionals because of a complete and total lack of offense. Last year, LSU beat the Tigers by scores of 6-1 and 3-1. This time around, in even more frustrating fashion, Washington held an improved Missouri offense completely in check and won by scores of 2-1 and, this evening, 1-0. It was a heart-breaking way for the careers of players like Chelsea Thomas, Nicole Hudson and Jenna Marston to end.

Washington's win ended one of the more frustrating years in Mizzou's recent athletic history. But that alone tells us something. In 2012-13, Mizzou managed another Top 10 finish in wrestling, a Super Regional appearance in softball, an NCAA Tournament appearance in basketball, and an NIT appearance in women's basketball. It was nine frustrating months of pretty good athletic achievement. We want more, and previous years have told us that we'll get more in the future, but the almosts and injuries were tough to deal with in the short-term.

In the coming days, we'll talk about how the softball team looks heading into the future. But for now, we'll just say that a) this stinks, b) donate as much as you can to the Tremendous Stubble drive, and c) we'll miss the hell out of you, seniors. It was great (indirectly) getting to know you. Go Tigers.