The University of Illinois Springfield softball team hit a season-high four home runs on its way to an 8-0 victory over Missouri-St. Louis in the first round of the NCAA Regional Tournament on Thursday in St. Louis, Mo.
 
UIS collected its first homer just two batters into the game when Calla Wickenhauser hit one out over the center field fence. The Prairie Stars held that 1-0 lead until the third when Natalie Cokel hit a solo homer, and Ali Bortmess hit a two-run shot to give the team some breathing room.
 
UIS then finished the game off by the run-rule with a four-run fifth inning. Wickenhauser homered again, this time for two runs. That was followed by two walks, and both runners came around to score for the final margin of victory.
 
Jaycee Craver threw a shutout, allowing just three hits and two walks in five innings. The Tritons loaded the bases in both the third and fourth innings. Both times, shortstop Bree Derhake got UIS out of the jam. In the third, she caught a pop fly to end the inning. In the fourth, she fielded a grounder up the middle, touched second, and got the double play at first.
 
Wickenhauser, Morgan Edwards, and Ali Bortmess all scored two times, and Cokel and Kendra Peifer had the other runs. Wickenhauser drove in three, Bortmess had two RBI, and Cokel, Carolyn Franke, and Peifer had one RBI apiece. The top five in the UIS lineup finished six-for-13 in the game with seven runs and seven RBI.
 
UIS improves to 28-24 on the season. The Prairie Stars will be in action again on Friday with a noon game against Indianapolis.