They got the scoring started early and never stopped as DePaul stomped Creighton 9-1 in the Big East Softball Tournament semifinals.

Senior pitcher Kirsten Verdun earned the win after pitching six innings and striking out eleven.

“When Kirsten is on and we hit and play defense like the way we did today, I really like our chances,” Head Coach Eugene Lenti said.

After sending Creighton down in order in the top of the first, the first three Blue Demon batters loaded the bases for Dylan Christensen. She hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Verdun, then a left field error on a fly ball was enough to score senior shortstop Allie Braden.

The Blue Demons couldn’t bring any more runs across the plate in the first but the way that Kirsten Verdun was pitching it did not matter. Verdun took a perfect game through three innings, striking out six of the first nine batters for the Blue Jays.

DePaul broke the game open in the bottom of the third inning. With runners on second and third and no out, Christensen laced a single up the middle to score the runners, her second and third RBIs of the game. Then, with two outs and the bases loaded later in the inning, a bloop hit by Gena Lenti went off the glove of a diving Jessica Lewis, the Creighton second baseman, and into the outfield, allowing two more runs to score. DePaul lead 6-0 at that point.

The Blue Jays got a run back in the top of the fourth. After a single by Blair Lowe, which broke up Verdun’s perfect game, Alexis Cantu doubled with two outs to score Lowe for the Jays first and only run.

The game would continue with that score until the bottom of the sixth inning where, with two on and no out, Allie Braden tripled to deep center, scoring both base runners. Micah Fitzgerald then pinch hit and hit into a fielders choice at shortstop, which allowed Braden to score the winning run for DePaul. The Blue Demons would walk off on the mercy rule win, defeating Creighton nine to one.

Lenti was pleased with the way the team started off well.

“We’ve been opportunistic all season and wanted to get off to a great start today,” Lenti said.

The Blue Demons advanced to the Big East Championship game with the win, where they will face the winner of St. John’s and Georgetown Saturday at 11 a.m.