EAST PEORIA, Ill. – Annie Scaramuzzi struck out a career-high 15 batters in the University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team's 3-0 loss to seventh seeded Rockhurst in the first round of the GLVC Tournament at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill., on Thursday afternoon.
Scaramuzzi was dominant through the first five innings as she set down 15 of the first 16 hitters she faced. 10 of those outs came via the strikeout. The only runner that reached base for the Hawks in the first five innings came with two outs in the second on a throwing error by
McKenzie Lamos that allowed Avery Huffman to reach second.
The Tritons, seeded second, (30-19) hit several balls hard against Rockhurst's Breanna Droge but were held without a hit until
Megan Brown's lead-off single in the fifth broke up Droge's bid for a perfect game. Scaramuzzi sacrificed
Corinne Daley, running for Brown, to second but UMSL was unable to get the key hit as
Jamie Widule popped up to first and
Jenna Towle flew out to center to end the threat.
Scaramuzzi retired the first two hitters in the sixth but allowed a two-out walk to Allison Shakiba and then Maya Gallagher hit the first pitch she saw for a two-run home run to center field to break the scoreless deadlock.
Rockhurst (21-24) added an insurance run in the seventh. Calli Wibbenmeyer was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, went to second on a sacrifice and scored on Reinhart's infield single to
Anna VanGundy that was deflected by
Courtney Settles.
Scaramuzzi was the tough luck loser giving up the three runs on only two hits to drop to 6-4 on the season.
UMSL will take on third seeded McKendree in an elimination game on Friday at 12:30 p.m.
