"We’re getting down to the end of our careers, and it’s not quite the way we want things to be going," senior pitcher Stephanie Falk (20-17) said.

Falk pitched brilliantly over the week for Missouri, but Texas Tech’s Amanda Renfro was better.

Renfro (27-15) continued her dominance of Missouri with a one-hitter yesterday in a 1-0 win and is now 6-0 against the Tigers in her four-year career. Renfro, the reigning Big 12 pitcher of the week, leads the nation in wins and is No. 18 with 9.2 strikeouts per game.

Despite the impressive numbers, Missouri’s Melanie Fisher, the lone Tiger to record a hit, said her team could have done more to help Falk.

"We could have hit her better. She wasn’t as good as we made her look," Fisher said of Renfro. "She’s a good rise- ball pitcher, and that’s a great pitch to be one of your strengths at this level."

The Tigers (25-24, 4-9) continued having problems at the plate. Renfro did not overpower hitters with blazing fastballs, but she had MU guessing.

"We have to do a better job at the plate. We swung at a lot of bad pitches again," Missouri coach Jay Miller said. "The only ones we didn’t swing at were right down the middle. We figured that great teams beat great pitchers, so if we want to be a great team we have to beat pitchers like that and make those kind of adjustments."

The lone run came in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Amanda Douglas doubled and eventually scored on a single by Tracy Cartier.

"We played well enough to win," said Texas Tech coach Bobby Reeves, whose team is now 30-18, 8-6 Big 12. "A 1-0 score is as good as 16-0 as long as you win, but you always wish you can score more runs. The conference tournament is when all that’s going to happen and these two wins up here are big for us."

The Tigers are in jeopardy of having to take part in play-in games to make the Big 12 Conference tournament.

Entering the Texas Tech series, Missouri was in a three-way tie for No. 7 in the conference, with only the top six receiving automatic bids to the tournament. The Tigers will play at Southeast Missouri tomorrow and at Baylor on the weekend.

"Obviously we lose two 1-0 ballgames, and everybody is not feeling spry and happy," Miller said. "The key is how well we bounce back, and we have the opportunity to get on a roll heading into Baylor. The question isn’t how we are right now, the question is how we are going to come out on Tuesday when we play again."