SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team saw its season come to an end on Saturday with two losses at No. 19 ranked Illinois Springfield in the championship game of the NCAA Midwest Regional #2.
 
The sixth-seeded Tritons entered the day needing just one win to advance to next weekend's Super Regional, but the two-seeded Prairie Stars rallied for a 5-3 win in game one to force the if necessary game, which they also won, 4-1.
 
UMSL finishes its season with a 35-24 record, while UIS improves to 40-17 and advances to next weekend's Super Regional against either No. 1 seed Grand Valley State or No. 5 seed Southern Indiana.
 
Game 1: UIS 5, UMSL 3
Three hits coupled with a Tritons error in the sixth inning led to three runs for UIS and helped force the decisive game.
 
The Prairie Stars' rally came after UMSL had a rally of its own, in which the Tritons scored two runs on four hits in the fifth to take their first lead of the day at 3-2. Junior Serena Olson doubled to drive in junior Reagan Osborn, while freshman Lizzy Miller's RBI single sent Olson home.
 
UIS jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but after the Prairie Stars scored that second run, Tritons ace Carly Kingery would retire 14 of the next 15 batters she faced until the sixth inning outburst.
 
UMSL got one run back in the top of the second when Miller scored on an RBI single from freshman Sapphire Munoz.
 
UMSL outhit UIS, 10-7, with Osborn, Miller, senior Jennah Perryman and redshirt sophomore Morgan Hill tallying two each.
 
Kingery went five and one-thirds in the loss, striking out four, and allowing five runs on seven hits.
 
Game 2: UIS 4, UMSL 1
A two-run homer in the third gave UIS a 2-0 lead before two more runs came home in the fifth to make it 4-0.
 
UMSL got its run in the bottom of the fifth on Hill's infield single that score Miller, who led off with a triple.
 
The Tritons were limited to just three hits by GLVC Pitcher of the Year Ali Haesele with the first coming on a two-out double from Olson in the fourth.

The loss marks the end of the careers for seniors Perryman and Kaitlin Fraser. Perryman graduates ranking fourth all-time in home runs (42), fifth in runs (123), sixth in RBIs (143), ninth in hits (185) and 10^th in doubles (37).