Lindenwood freshman Irelynn West (left) celebrates with teammate Taylor Bushman following her RBI double, which proved to be the only run of the game in the Lions’ 1-0 win in the first round of the GLVC Tournament, Saturday afternoon, over crosstown rival UMSL. (Photo courtesy: Lindenwood Athletics)
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UMSL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Lindenwood | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 6 | 1 |
W: Amanda Weyh (21-3) L: Megan Brown (2-8)
Torrance Terrell
Staff Writer
The Lindenwood University women’s softball team got a clutch hit from a freshman and a dominate pitching performance by a first team all-conference junior to produce a 1-0 win over crosstown rival UMSL.
The victory came, Saturday morning, in the first round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, which is being played at the EastSide Centre Softball Complex in East Peoria, Ill.
Lindenwood, which came into the tournament as the No. 4 seed, had six hits in the game to just three for UMSL. But the only two hits that mattered were a leadoff double by graduate student Whitney Wendel and a one-out double by freshman Irelynn West that drove her in in the bottom of the second inning, for the game’s only run.
From there, Lindenwood starter Amanda Weyh did the rest, as she shutout the Tritons with a spectacular complete game performance, in which she struck out nine batters, walked just two, and only allowed the three hits.
In fact, once Lindenwood took the lead, Weyh only allowed one hard hit ball by UMSL the rest of the game. That was a one-out double by junior Kayla Settles in the top of the sixth. The next batter reached as well, on a fielding error, which gave the Tritons their best scoring chance of the game.
But Weyh worked her way out of that jam, with a groundball out and pop up that kept UMSL off the scoreboard.
The Tritons got another runner on, thanks to a two-out single by junior Irene Travis, but Weyh (21-3) got a groundout for the final out to preserve the win.
The victory, which raised Lindenwood’s season record to 35-10, sent the Lions to the GLVC Tournament semifinals, where they will play either top-seeded Southern Indiana or eighth-seeded Maryville, Sunday morning at 10 a.m. The winner of that contest will advance to the GLVC championship game, which will be played Sunday at 3 p.m.
UMSL finished its season with a 28-22 record.