Drury Drops Northern Kentucky 4-2 in GLVC Opener
Drury Sports Information
3/13/2009 7:25:25 PM
Junior right-hander Blake Wixson gave the Panthers seven strong innings as Drury held off Northern Kentucky 4-2 in the opener of their four-game Great Lakes Valley Conferencve series Friday at Meador Park.
The Panthers moved to 9-8 overall while Northern Kentucky, the preseason favorite in the GLVC East, fell to 10-6 in the league opener for both teams.
Wixson pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing just six hits and one earned run to a Norse team that was averaging just under 12 runs per game in the seven-game winning streak it brought into Meador. Wixson struck out five and walked two in improving to 2-1 on the season.
The Panthers struck first when Dane Hughes' RBI single in the second scored Jason Hall, but NKU answered with a pair of runs in the third off a Wixson balk and a DU fielding error.
Drury tied it in the third when R.J. Knese tripled and later came around on a Hall RBI single, then took the lead for good when Knese scored on a wild pitch in the fifth. The Panthers tacked on an insurance run in the eighth on Joel Potts' sacrifice fly, scoring pinch-runner Alex Nixon.
Zane Montgomery entered with runners at second and third and two outs in the eighth and pitched a worry-free ninth to pick up his second save in as many games, striking out two in an inning and a third.
Hall went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, while Hughes added a pair of hits as the Panthers out-hit the Norse 7-6.
The teams will play a double-header on Saturday at noon and complete the series with a single nine-inning game on Sunday, also at noon.
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