EAST PEORIA, ILL. – Junior
Carly Kingery pitched the No. 4 seeded University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team to a pair of victories on Thursday to open play at the 2018 GLVC Tournament. The Tritons defeated No. 5 seed Truman State, 3-1, before knocking off top-seeded and No. 18 ranked Illinois Springfield, 8-0, to advance to tomorrow's winner's bracket final at 1 p.m. against sixth-seeded Southern Indiana in the double elimination tournament.
Kingery did not allow an earned run on the day and scattered just five hits, while recording 17 strikeouts with just one walk and limited her opponents to a .102 batting average.
Offensively, junior
Reagan Osborn went a combined 4-for-5 at the plate and also reached on a walk and a hit-by-pitch and scored four runs.
Game 1: No. 4 UMSL 3, No. 5 Truman State 1
The Tritons scored all three runs on two outs with the first two being drove in by junior
Chelsea Martinez.
Martinez's first RBI single came in the first inning, countering the Bulldogs' run in the top half of the frame, and Osborn, who reached on an error.
Martinez then gave UMSL a 2-1 lead in the third, again driving in Osborn on another two-out single that came after an error.
Kingery tossed the complete-game two-hit victory, striking out nine. The Bulldogs got just one run off Kingery, which was unearned, in the first inning.
The Tritons added an insurance run in the fourth inning on freshman
Carlie Kudary's RBI single that scored junior
Madi Sundling, who led off with a triple.
Martinez had two of UMSL's five hits.
Game 2: No. 4 UMSL 8, No. 1 Illinois Springfield 0
While Kingery kept the Prairie Stars offense quiet with just three hits, the Triton bats belted eight hits, including two home runs, both of which came off GLVC Pitcher of the Year Ali Haesele.
Osborn led off the game with a single, while senior
Jennah Perryman followed with her 11
th long ball of the season to quickly make it 2-0.
Junior
Lizzy Miller then gave the Tritons a 5-0 cushion in the sixth, delivering her first home run of the season on a three-run shot, while also snapping a five-game hitless streak.
UMSL plated three more insurance runs in the seventh, including two on a single from redshirt sophomore
Morgan Hill and an RBI single from Martinez.
Osborn finished 3-for-3 at the plate, while Perryman had a hit, drew two walks, recorded two RBI and scored three runs.
Kingery had a perfect game through four innings before Illinois Springfield led off the fifth with their first hit of the game. She struck out eight without issuing a walk.
