PEORIA, ILL. – The No. 2 ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team opened GLVC Tournament action on Friday with a 9-0 five-inning win over Rockhurst and a 6-4 win over Truman State to advance to Saturday's winner's bracket final against Lewis.
Junior
Hannah Perryman picked up two wins in the circle, including perfect game number six of the season in the opener, while junior
Katie Wood combined for three hits and six RBIs on the day.
The top-seeded Tritons improve to 42-6 overall and will face the No. 6 seeded Flyers at 1 p.m. tomorrow. A win would put UMSL in its third straight GLVC Championship game on Sunday, while a loss would send them to an elimination game at 5 p.m.
GAME 1: UMSL 9, Rockhurst 0 (5 inn.)Perryman struck out 12 of the 15 batters she faced en route to her seventh career perfect game, which ties four-time Texas All-American and Olympic gold medalist Cat Osterman for the most in all three NCAA divisions. It was also her 12
th shutout of the season.
While Perryman kept the eighth-seeded Rockhurst offense quiet, senior
Madison Zbaraschuk ignited the UMSL bats, driving in five runs on two hits. Her three-run homer in the first inning put the Tritons ahead, 3-0, while a two-run double in the third inning made it a 5-0 advantage.
Senior
Katie Rutledge reached on an RBI fielder's choice in the fourth, which scored GLVC Freshman of the Year
Jennah Perryman, before Wood knocked out a three-run long ball for the final score.
GAME 2: UMSL 6, Truman 4The fourth-seeded Bulldogs struck early with a solo home run off Perryman in the first inning, but the Tritons scored the game's next five runs, including two in the third off Wood's double. Wood drove in another run in the fifth for the 5-1 lead after Rutledge tripled down the right field line to score sophomore
Sara Kern.
A two-run homer by Truman in the sixth made it a 5-3 game before senior
Hannah Wessels knocked UMSL's 99
th home run of the season out in the top of the seventh. The Tritons sit in fifth place all time on the NCAA DII single season home runs chart with their 99 long balls.
The Bulldogs led off the bottom of the seventh with their third home run of the day, but Perryman followed with a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to end the contest, collecting her 24
th victory of the season. She scattered four hits, walked three and struck out 12.
Truman nearly had a four home run day off of Perryman, but a leaping catch over the centerfield fence by Kern robbed the Bulldogs and left two runners on base.
Wood finished with a pair of hits and three RBIs, while Wessels tallied two hits and scored two runs. UMSL finished with eight hits.
