EAST PEORIA, ILL. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team delivered three home runs on Friday en route to a pair of wins to open the 2019 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. The top-seeded Tritons defeated No. 8 seed Lewis, 3-0, and No. 5 seed Illinois Springfield, 4-2, to advance to tomorrow's winner's bracket final at 1 p.m. against an opponent yet to be determined.
 
UMSL outhit its opponents, 17-6, in the two games. Junior Andee Tiffee went 3-for-6 at the plate with two doubles, a home run and three RBI.
 
Records: UMSL (32-17), Lewis (22-29), Illinois Springfield (27-23)
 
Game 1: UMSL 3, Lewis 0
Senior Carly Kingery (16-10) tossed the complete game, three-hit shutout, striking out 12, while senior Reagan Osborn drove in the final two runs with a solo home run in the third and an RBI single in the sixth.
 
Tiffee got the Tritons on the board in the first with an RBI double.
 
UMSL finished with 10 hits, including two each from Osborn, redshirt junior Morgan Hill and sophomore Carlie Kudary.
 
Game 2: UMSL 4, Illinois Springfield 2
Tiffee (15-4) picked up the win in the circle and drove in two runs to help herself. Her long ball in the second inning tied the game at 1-1, while her RBI double in the third gave the Tritons a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish.
 
Freshman Corinne Daley recorded a home run of her own in the sixth for the final score.
 
Both of UIS's runs came via the long ball, including a lead-off home run in the first inning, and then another one in the second inning.
 
The only other hit the Prairie Stars got was a single in the fifth. Tiffee finished with 11 strikeouts and allowed just two walks.
 
Offensively, Tiffee recorded two of UMSL's seven hits.