EAST PEORIA, Ill.—For the first time since 2016, University of Southern Indiana Softball suffered back-to-back shutout losses as the No. 22 Screaming Eagles were eliminated from the Great Lakes Valley Conference Softball Championship Tournament on the opening day of competition Friday afternoon.

USI (33-19), the No. 3 seed in the tournament, suffered a 1-0 setback to the No. 6 seed, Truman State University, to begin the day, while the No. 7 seed, Drury University, ended the Eagles' hopes of repeating with an 8-0, five-inning win in the elimination bracket.

Truman 1, USI 0
Truman State (29-15) used a three-hit fourth inning to break a scoreless tie in the opening round of the GLVC Tournament. The Eagles had the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning, but could not push a run across the plate.

In all, the Eagles stranded seven runners on base as they were limited to just three hits in the contest.

Junior pitcher Jennifer Leonhardt (Louisville, Kentucky) was charged with the loss after giving up one run off seven hits. Leonhardt (19-8) had five strikeouts and issued four walks in seven innings of work.

Drury 8, USI 0 (5 inn.)
Drury (35-22) scored all eight runs with two outs as it ran away with the 8-0 victory. The Panthers scored twice in the bottom of the second inning, four times in the third and two more times in the fourth to win via the eight-run rule.

The Eagles had hits in all five innings, but could not sustain momentum in any of the frames.

Senior pitcher Haylee Smith (Florence, Kentucky) was charged with the loss after giving up six runs, five earned, off seven hits in two-and-two-thirds innings of work. She falls to 7-3 with the decision.

Up next
The NCAA II Tournament selection show is Monday at 9 a.m. (CDT) on NCAA.com. USI will have to wait until then to find out what its post-season fate is after being ranked No. 4 in last week's NCAA II Midwest Region rankings.