ST. LOUIS – The 10th-ranked UIndy softball team (45-13) opened the 2015 NCAA Division II Midwest Super Regional with a slim 2-1 defeat at Missouri-St. Louis Friday.   Just after a four-and-a-half hour rain delay, the top-ranked Tritons (48-6) got a two-run home run in the third inning and held on for the win.

The teams return to UMSL Softball Field tomorrow to decide the best-of-three series.  Game two is set for 1 p.m. ET, with a UIndy win forcing a third-and-final game immediately following..

Today's game featured agruably the marquee pitching match-up of any of the eight Super Regionals: UIndy's Morgan Foley vs. UMSL's Hannh Perryman.  Both hurlers came into the day ranked in the top 10 in Division II in wins, ERA, strikeouts and hits allowed per game.
 
The Greyhounds put a total of eight runners on base, including three via the walk to match a season high for a Perryman opponent.  UIndy had multiple runners on in three of the innings but only managed to score in the fourth.  Jessie Noone was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Katie Kelly's bloop single to left.
 
Foley, meanwhile, fanned the first five batters she saw before a hard hit ball up the middle resulted in the Tritons' first hit.  But immediately following the infield single, approaching thunderstorms forced the lengthy delay.
 
More than four hours passed before Foley returned to the circle.  She went on to strike out 13 in the three-hit complete game, but the damage done in the bottom of the third proved enough for the home team.
 
After UMSL senior Katie Rutledge worked a one-out walk, fellow-senior Katie Wood made it hurt with a homer to center to put the Tritons on top.
 
UIndy got one run back in the fourth but managed only one base runner in the final three innings.
 
Senior Casey Williamson reached base in all three plate appearance, coaxing two walks while adding an infield single.  Kelly also worked a walk to go with her RBI knock, Noone roped a double off the fence to supplement her HBP, while Sydney Russell had a first-inning single.