EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The top-seeded UIndy softball team shut out three-seed Southern Indiana in an 8-0 final Sunday morning at the GLVC Championship Tournament semifinals. The Greyhounds (49-3) broke a scoreless tie with five runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to cruise to the run-rule victory and advance to the conference championship game for the second straight season.
 
The result also bumps USI to the losers' bracket to face second-seeded Missouri-St. Louis in an elimination game at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET. That winner, in turn, faces the Hounds for the league championship at around 4:30 p.m. ET. As the only unbeaten team at the double-elimination tourney, UIndy needs just one more win to secure the crown, while the team that emerges from the losers' bracket will have to beat the Greyhounds twice in a row.
 
The two GLVC heavyweights battled through four scoreless frames before the Hounds generated five big runs in the fifth. After a hard-hit single by freshman Emma Varsbergs, the Greyhounds dropped back-to-back bunts, neither of which resulted in an out. The Screaming Eagles (35-18) were charged with throwing errors on both sacrifices, bringing in Varsbergs with an unearned run and putting Therea DeCosty and Cassie Reed at the corners with nobody out.
 
USI managed to cut down the lead runner at the plate to get the first out, but the rally crescendoed with three straight hits from the top of the Greyhound order. Singles from Katie Kelly and Erika Goodwin loaded the bases for sophomore Jessie Noone, who delivered with a bases-clearing double to the right-center gap to give the Hounds a commanding lead.
 
UIndy tacked on three more in the sixth, starting with a solo blast from Varsbergs, her fourth home run of the season. Two more runs crossed without the benefit of a hit, as the Hounds parlayed two walks and two USI errors into an 8-0 advantage.
 
Senior Morgan Foley got the win in the circle, upping her record to a gaudy 38-2. Her day featured eight strikeouts bump her season total at 460 and break her own school record for Ks in a season.
 
Foley, who allowed just three hits and one walk, went five innings before yielding to reliever and fellow-senior Coryn Tirpak, who finished the shutout with a scoreless sixth.
 
Noone and Varsbergs each finished with two hits while Cassie Reed and Tayler Weck both scored twice.