EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team survived and advanced in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament with a 4-1 win over McKendree on Friday afternoon at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The Tritons improve to 31-19 while the Bearcats drop to 29-16.
UMSL, seeded second, struck first in the top of the third with a pair of unearned runs. With one out,
Irene Travis started the rally with a double to left center. Travis scored on a throwing error by Kinsey Vergason on a ground ball hit by
Courtney Settles. Vergason's throw was wide of first and allowed Settles to advance to second. With two out,
Megan Brown hit a grounder to Vergason who again threw wide of first allowing Settles to score.
McKendree, seeded third, got a run back in its half of the third on Lauren Harris' solo home run to right center.
The Tritons had a chance to extend their lead getting three straight hits with two out in the fifth but left the bases loaded as
Jamie Widule struck out swinging to end the inning.
The Bearcats loaded the bases with one out in their half of the fifth on a single and two walks but
Annie Scaramuzzi struck out Reagan Cheely and Skylar Davis to end the inning.
UMSL tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh. Settles led off the inning with a single to right center and was run for by
Corinne Daley.
McKenzie Lamos then beat out an infield single to short. Brown advanced both runners with a fly out to right for the first out of the frame. Scaramuzzi helped her own cause hitting a ground ball to first. Davis came home to try and get Daley at the plate but her throw was late to make it 3-1.
Maddie Snemis then drove in Lamos with a groundout to Macy Brown at second for the final run of the inning.
Scaramuzzi allowed a one-out single in the bottom of the inning to Heaven Lawerence but got Harris to pop out to
Anna VanGundy and retired Olivia Stansbury on a fly ball to Widule in center to end the game.
The Tritons outhit McKendree 7-4 in the contest and were led by Snemis with two while Travis, Settles, Lamos, Brown and Scaramuzzi had one hit apiece. Scaramuzzi picked up the win in the circle allowing one run on four hits while striking out 10 to improve to 7-4 on the season.
UMSL will take on seventh seeded Rockhurst in another elimination game on Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill.
