Four days after the firing of Ehren Earleywine, University of Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk announced Gina Fogue will fill the role as the Tigers' interim softball coach. A Mizzou alum, Fogue has spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach on Earleywine's staff.

She previously served two seasons as the program's director of operations and played for Earleywine on two of his three Women’s College World Series teams at Missouri.

“She has earned the trust and respect of our student-athletes, which is critical when making an important decision such as this,” Sterk said in the UM release. “We believe that she is the right coach at the right time to lead the Tigers into the 2018 season.”

“Gina has had a tremendous amount of responsibility with practice and game management decisions over the past four seasons which have greatly contributed to Mizzou’s success, and we believe it was in the best interest of our student-athletes to have her serve as our interim head coach for the upcoming season.”

Fogue is the Tigers' first female softball coach since in 1987, when Rhesa Sumrell held the position.

Fogue commented on her new role saying, “Naturally, this isn’t the scenario in which you envision taking over as head coach, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to do anything I can to help this team move forward with a successful season. I’ve learned a tremendous amount under Coach Earleywine in my time here at Mizzou, and I look forward to building on this program’s proud tradition.”

The Tigers start their season against San Jose State on Feb. 8 at the Kajikawa Classic LIVE on FloSoftball.