EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The UIndy softball team (38-17) got an historic performance from pitcher Lauren Honkomp Friday at the GLVC Championship Tournament. With her club facing elimination, the sophomore hurler spun a no-hitter versus the top-seeded and 18th-ranked Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars to keep the Greyhounds (38-17) alive at the eight-team, double-elimination event.
 
Honkomp finished a hit batsman and an error away from a perfect game, striking out six and walking zero in seven innings. The outing marked the first no-hit performance by a Greyhound pitcher since All-American Morgan Foley blanked Truman in the 2016 GLVC Tournament – also a 2-0 final – and the last no-hitter for UIndy in a tournament elimination game since Foley and Coryn Tirpak combined to miss every bat in a 6-0 win versus these same Prairie Stars at the 2014 conference tourney.
 
UIndy advances to face eighth-seeded Missouri S&T in another elimination contest starting at approximately 4 p.m. ET. The Lady Miners bounced two-seed McKendree earlier in the day. The Hounds split their regular-season doubleheader with S&T just six days ago.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Stars came into the game leading the league in batting average, slugging percentage and runs scored, but Honkomp (17-8) kept them guessing with an array of pitches. The Richmond, Ind., native retired the first 14 batters she faced before brushing designated player Bree Derhanke on the hand in the fifth inning to give the Stars their first base runner. No harm was done, however, as Honkomp induced a ground ball to end the inning and, sans a Greyhound throwing error in the sixth, cruised to the win.
 
On the other side of the lineup card, the Hounds drew GLVC Pitcher of the Year Ali Haesele. After getting stung for five runs in 5 1/3 innings yesterday, the Greyhounds jumped on the senior hurler for two runs in the bottom of the first; junior Taylor Podschweit upped her team-high RBI total to 53 with a two-run single, scoring Brooke Montgomery and Taylor Danielson.
 
Haesele did not allow a run the rest of the way, but the damage was done. She surrendered just four hits – two singles apiece from Montgomery and Podschweit – but still dropped her pitching record to 21-9 on the season.