Drury's pitching staff combined to hold Rockhurst to one run over 16 innings Sunday as the Panthers completed a four-game sweep of the Hawks with 4-0 and 6-1 victories on a Senior Day Sunday afternoon at Meador Park.

As a result, coach Scott Nasby's Panthers planted themselves firmly in the race for the eight Great Lakes Valley Conference post-season tourney spots by improving to 23-20-1 overall and 17-14-1 in the league. Drury moved into fifth place in the GLVC West, but has the sixth-best overall record in the league, with only East leader Indianapolis (22-10) having a better winning percentage from that division. The top three teams from each division, plus next two best teams regardless of division, will move on to play in the GLVC Championships in the Indianapolis, Ind., area May 7-10.

The Panthers, who will play host to Arkansas-Fort Smith in a non-conference doubleheader Tuesday (2:30 p.m.), will finish the GLVC regular season at William Jewell (33-12, 22-10) in Liberty next Saturday and Sunday (noon starts each day). 

Rockhurst fell to 19-27 and 10-20.

Sunday's effort was led by the arms, as sophomore Ryan Colombo and freshman Ryan Wedermyer combined to limit the Hawks to six hits and no runs over six innings before Gage Jacobs came in to close the seventh in the 4-0 victory in the opener. 

The Panthers scored single runs in each of the first three innings - on a Bobby Lang groundout, Spencer Wilmes single and Luke Tewes RBI single - to grab a 3-0 lead. John Goodrich had an RBI single in the sixth for the fourth DU run, as the Panthers outhit the Hawks 8-6. Colombo improved to 5-2 with the win, allowing five hits and striking out one in three innings before leaving with a minor injury, and Wedermyer answered by allowing just one hit in three innings of relief.

Ryan Wadkins had three hits and scored twice and Wilmes had two hits - part of a 5-for-7 with 4 RBIs day for the junior third baseman - for the Panthers.

Game Two on Sunday saw more solid pitching in the nine-inning finale. 

Luke Burnidge (4-3) allowed five hits and a run in six innings - striking out seven and walking two - before getting three shutout innings from Nick Costantino and Jacobs to keep Rockhurst from rallying.

Down 1-0 through three, the Panthers scored twice in the fourth - on Wilmes and Goodrich RBI singles - and twice more in the sixth on another Goodrich run-scoring single and an RU error, to grab a 4-1 lead. Two more runs in the eighth, courtesy of a Wilmes two-run single (he joined Goodrich in leading the Panthers with three hits), helped seal the sweep and push a season-best winning streak to six games. 

Prior to this week, the Panthers had not won back-to-back games since late March, but appear to be peaking at the right time as they fight to get into the GLVC tourney field and put up a defense of their league title, thanks largely to the efforts all weekend of the eight seniors they honored in pre-game festivities Sunday - Tewes, Jacobs, Tyler Arthur, Jacob Green, Dallas Williams, Scott Chesbro and Saturday's winning pitchers, Trevor Richards and Austin Faulconer.

"The effort and execution today and all weekend was a great tribute to our seniors," Nasby said. "We are proud of that these guys have done in the classroom and on the field. They have set the bar high for future classes.

"The sweep got us where we needed to be. We win and we are in. We don't need to scoreboard watch if we keep winning."

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