EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The UIndy softball team (50-3) capped its run through the 2016 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament with a 7-1 win versus two-seed Missouri-St. Louis in the conference final Sunday evening. The Greyhounds avenged a loss in last year's GLVC championship behind a total team effort that featured a two-hitter from senior pitcher Morgan Foley, three home runs from the offense and zero errors defensively.
 
UIndy reaped its second-ever GLVC trophy, with the team's only other league title coming in 2012. UIndy and UMSL, who entered the weekend as the three-time defending GLVC champion, have now combined to win the last five conference crowns.
 
Sunday's tournament slate was jammed-packed after rain washed out all five scheduled games yesterday. As a result, UMSL needed to battle through three elimination games Sunday before even getting to the championship, while UIndy, who unlike the Tritons, won both games Friday and thus needed to win only one game to advance to the final.
 
UMSL opted to start No. 2-pitcher Carly Kingery, who just shut out No. 3-seed Southern Indiana in the game prior. But after a 1-2-3 first inning, the Greyhounds chased the freshman hurler with a four-run second.
 
Junior Natalie Lalich led off the frame with a no-doubter to center field, good for her 13th homer of the year. A double from freshman Emma Varsbergs kept the rally going, followed by RBI hits from Cassie Reed (single), Katie Kelly (single) and Erika Goodwin (double) to further inflate the early lead.
 
Kingery managed to finish the second but did not return the circle in the third. Instead, UMSL went to their ace, Divisoin II's all-time leader in career strikeouts, Hannah Perryman. She retired the first four Hounds she faced until shortstop Tayler Weck took her deep in the fourth - Weck's second home run of the tournament.
 
Lalich did the same in the fifth with a two-run bomb to straight-away center. It marked her 14th round-tripper on second multi-homer game of the season for the Greenwood, Ind., native.
 
Meanwhile, Foley (39-2) was her normal dominant self, holding the Tritons to just two hits while striking out 16 and walking only two. She did not surrender a safety until the fifth when second baseman Reagan Osborn hit a solo homer to record UMSL's lone run of the game. Foley, who just broke her own school record for strikeouts in a season earlier in the day, moved her record to 39-2 to match to program benchmark for pitching wins in the season.
 
In addition to winning the GLVC crown and earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the result marked the 50th victory for the Hounds this season. UIndy now has three 50-win campaigns in the last five years, including a program-record 54 victories in 2012.
 
With a guaranteed spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, the Greyhounds await the seeding of the upcoming Midwest Region. The complete field will be announced Monday, May 2 at 10 a.m. ET on NCAA.com. The Hounds were ranked No. 1 in the most recent regional rankings and will most likely host the NCAA regional May 5-7.