Sophomore Hannah Perryman leads all of NCAA DII with 397 strikeouts, an average of 13.7 per seven innings, which also tops the nation. Her 397 strikeouts rank 16 all-time in a single season in NCAA DII history. She is UMSL’s career leader in that category with 749.

The University of Missouri–St. Louis softball team is on the cusp of making its first NCAA Division II Women’s College World Series. KSDK (Channel 5) highlighted the team’s success as the team prepares to host a best-of-three Midwest Super Regional series against Wayne State University. Here’s everything you need to know going into the series.

THE SETTING
Fresh off winning the NCAA DII Midwest Regional #1 last weekend, UMSL heads to the program’s first-ever Super Regional, where the top-seeded Tritons will host No. 2 seed Wayne State. The Warriors captured the Midwest Regional #2 title and travels to St. Louis for a best of three games series. Game one will be played on Friday at 1 p.m., while Saturday’s game two is at 12 p.m. If necessary, a third game would follow at 2:30 p.m. The winner advances to the NCAA DII Championship May 22-26 in Salem, Va.

SCOUTING WAYNE STATE
The Warriors are 44-9 and enter Super Regionals on a 19-game win streak. As a team, Wayne State is batting .302, led by Logan White’s .395 average and 68 hits. Lyndsay Butler and Briana Lee lead the pitching staff. Butler owns a 0.82 ERA and is 23-4 in the circle with 272 strikeouts, while Lee sports a 0.88 ERA and is 20-2 in the circle with a 197 strikeouts. Wayne State, which won the 2014 GLIAC Tournament, has shutout 26 opponents and is limiting foes to just a .163 batting average.

UMSL POSTSEASON HISTORY
The Tritons are making the program’s fourth NCAA appearance. UMSL is 7-6 in NCAA contests with previous appearances in 1989, 2009 and 2013.

MIDWEST REGIONAL #1 RECAP
UMSL went 3-0 in last weekend’s regional tournament, defeating No. 8 seed Bellarmine, 7-4, before downing No. 5 seed Ohio Dominican, 8-0, in six innings behind sophomore Hannah Perryman‘s perfect game. The Tritons then used a walk-off double by junior Madison Zbaraschuk to defeat No. 4 seed Truman State, 4-3, in the title game.

WIN STREAK
UMSL is currently on a 10-game win streak. The Tritons put together a string of 13 games earlier this season, second longest in program history.

HOME RUN CLUB
UMSL owns a program-best 60 home runs this season, bettering the 59 recorded by the 2010 team. It is the third straight year the Tritons have recorded 50 or more long balls. The Tritons lead the GLVC and rank 17th in NCAA DII in 1.11 home runs per game.

Individually, junior Brianna Butler leads the charge with 14 home runs, a new single season record. She is also the career leader with 32 long balls.

SPECIAL K
Sophomore Hannah Perryman leads all of NCAA DII with 397 strikeouts, an average of 13.7 per seven innings, which also tops the nation. Her 397 strikeouts rank 16 all-time in a single season in NCAA DII history. She is UMSL’s career leader in that category with 749.

TRITON TIDBITS
– UMSL’s 1.39 ERA ranks fifth in NCAA DII
– UMSL ranks second nationally in W-L percentage (.889), trailing only top-ranked West Texas A&M (.900)
– UMSL is 20-3 at home this season
– The Tritons are outscoring their opponents 45-10 in the first inning
– UMSL’s 48 wins are a program-best