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PEORIA, ILL. - Junior Brianna Butler recorded two homeruns to help the No. 11 ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team to wins over Illinois Springfield and No. 22 ranked Truman State on Friday on the first day of the 2014 GLVC Tournament.
 
Butler's walk-off homerun in the eighth inning helped the second-seeded Tritons begin defense of their league tournament championship with a 1-0 win over the No. 7 seed Prairie Stars. She then hit a two-run shot in a 5-0 victory over the third-seeded Bulldogs.
 
UMSL advances to tomorrow's winner's bracket finals against No. 4 seed Bellarmine, which handed top-seeded and No. 9 ranked Indianapolis an 8-0 loss in five innings. The Tritons also improve to 43-6 overall with the win, one victory shy of the school-record 44 wins set in 1995.
 
Butler, UMSL's career homeruns leader with 31 long balls, set a program single season record with 13 on her shot against Truman State.
 
Sophomore Hannah Perryman, two-time GLVC Pitcher of the Year, tossed a complete-game two-hit shutout in the win over Illinois-Springfield, while striking out 18.
 
Butler accounted for two of UMSL's five hits in that win.
 
Junior pitcher Brittni Chapman tossed the complete-game four-hit shutout against Truman State, while the Tritons recorded nine hits off co-GLVC Pitcher of the Year Kindra Henze. Henze stifled the Tritons offense just a week ago in a three-hit complete game 5-0 win during the final weekend of regular season play.
 
UMSL struck with their first run in the second inning. Freshman Alex Stupek led off with a walk and advanced to second on junior Katie Wood's single. The duo then advanced a base on a passed ball before Stupek scored as the Bulldogs fumbled the ball on junior Hannah Wessels bunt.
 
Junior Jena Boudreau made it 2-0 with a one-out homerun in the third, while junior Hannah Wessels followed suit in the fourth to make it a 3-0 advantage. Butler extended it to 5-0 in the fifth with her two-run homerun.
 
Boudreau and Wood each finished with two hits.
 
UMSL pushed its season homerun total to 54, the second most in program history, trailing only the 2010 team which hit 59.