OZARK, Mo.- The Bellarmine Knights knocked Drury out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament with a 5-2 win over the Panthers on Friday at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark.
 
Drury, who entered the postseason as the champions of the West Division, dropped to 29-23 on the year and went 0-2 in the GLVC tournament. Bellarmine, the second-seeded team from the East Division, advances to Saturday's round with a 35-16 mark.
 
The Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning as Nathan Schweppe's two-out double drove in Brandt Ollinger and Caleb Essick followed with an RBI-single.
 
Bellarmine tied the game two innings later with a two-run homer by Jacob Mulcahy and took the lead with a run in the seventh. Brady Pfaadt put in the Knights in front on a ground-out to first with the bases loaded. In the eighth, Bellarmine scored two insurance runs, getting a sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded hit-batsman.
 
"We had some leads in both games (of the tournament) but couldn't hold on to them," said Drury head coach Scott Nasby. "We didn't do enough offensively or on the mound."
 
Knights left-hander Hunter Spencer (6-2) got the win going 7.1 innings allowing nine hits and two runs with one walk and four strikeouts.
 
Freshman Tom Tewes (3-3) took the loss for the Panthers as he lasted 6.1 innings surrendering six hits and three runs with one walk and three strikeouts.
 
Drury out-hit Bellarmine 11-8 in the game but stranded eight in the loss.
 
Nathan Schweppe went 3 for 4 with a run, an RBI and two doubles. Brant Schaffitzel also had three hits going 3 for 4 with a walk.
 
"I'm proud of the guys in terms of where we started and where we ended up," said Nasby of his team that started the year 0-6, were still six games under .500 in late March, and recovered to go 20-8 in the conference to win the West Division. "Our guys bought into what we wanted to do as a staff and they fought for each other. When we had people go down to injuries, we had guys step up in big spots.
 
"Most of these guys are returning, and with new people coming in, it should be a challenging fall. It needs to be a challenging fall because this is not where we want to finish in the postseason."
 
 
 
 
 
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