ST. LOUIS, MO. – The No. 4 ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team ran its win streak to 15 games on Monday afternoon with a 10-0 five inning win over Illinois Springfield in game one of a Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader, but the Prairie Stars then held the Tritons to a season-low one hit in the nightcap to garner a 1-0 victory.
 
UMSL moves to 18-2 overall, including 3-1 in the GLVC, while the Prairie Stars are now 14-5 and 3-1 in the league.
 
The Tritons will play their next 10 games on the road, beginning Saturday with a doubleheader at Lewis.
 
GAME 1: UMSL 10, Illinois Springfield 0 (5 inn.)
UMSL belted out 12 hits, including four homeruns. Senior Katie Rutledge was responsible for two of those long balls, finishing 2-for-4 at the plate with four RBIs and two runs scored, while senior Katie Wood was 2-for-3 with a homerun and three RBIs. Sophomore Alex Stupek and senior Hannah Wessels added two hits each, while Wood and Stupek each extended their current hitting streak to six games.
 
Wood and senior Madison Zbaraschuk accounted for the game's first five runs. A Zbaraschuk RBI sac fly and a Wood RBI single in the first inning staked the Tritons to a quick 2-0 lead, while in the third inning Zbaraschuk delivered an RBI double, followed by a two-run Wood homerun.
 
Rutledge recorded her first homerun on a solo shot in the fourth inning and a three-run blast in the fifth inning that ended the game on the run rule. Freshman Jennah Perryman added a solo homerun in the four-run fifth inning.
 
Junior Hannah Perryman, coming off two perfect games, retired the first three batters she faced, but issued a leadoff walk to end her streak of 13 straight innings without a baserunner. The following batter then reached on an infield bunt single. However, she struck out the side and finished with 12 strikeouts in the complete game one-hit shutout. Perryman has now thrown 18 straight innings over her last four games without allowing a run, earned or unearned.
 
Game 2 – Illinois Springfield 1, UMSL 0
Rutledge accounted for the Triton's only hit, a double to left field in the sixth inning.
 
UIS put the game's first runner on base in the fourth inning with a two-out strike out swinging, reached on a passed ball. The Prairie Stars then scored the unearned run with back-to-back singles.
 
Senior Brittni Chapman was tagged with her first loss of the season (9-1) despite scattering just four hits and the one unearned run, while striking out a season-best eight.
 
UIS pitcher sophomore Taylor Bowlby, who signed with NCAA DI Bradley University out of high school, struck out a season-high 10 in her win, improving to 8-2 in the circle.