WESTFIELD, Ind. - Seventh-seed Drury scrapped its way to a 3-2 lead, and senior Tyler Arthur - for the second straight day - then broke it open with a pivotal homer as the Panthers knocked off top seed Quincy 7-2 Sunday afternoon for their second straight Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship and automatic NCAA-II tourney bid.

Coach Scott Nasby's Panthers (31-22-1), who've won 14 of their last 16 games, will now enter the Midwest Regional in St. Charles, Mo. (Lindenwood University)  as the No. 5 seed in the six-team regional, and will take on No. 2 seed Grand Valley State on Thursday in the double-elimination event. The regional runs through Sunday, with the winner moving on to the NCAA-II World Series in Cary, NC May 22-30.

It will mark Drury's third straight appearance in the NCAA tourney and second straight via automatic bid, after the Panthers continued their amazing late-season surge by knocking off a strong Quincy team in the finals for a second straight year.

GLVC Sports Network Post-Game Interviews With Nasby, Arthur, Faulconer

Drury trailed in this until knotting the game in the sixth, then used a big four-run eighth inning to bust it open. Ryan Colombo opened the inning with a double, and came around later to score on Dallas Williams' RBI double to give the Panthers their first lead at 3-2.

Then, after Luke Tewes was intentionally walked, Arthur stepped to the plate and delivered a three-run homer to right-center, about 16 hours after the senior catcher broke open an 11-7 win over Southern Indiana with an eighth-inning grand slam. 
 

Arthur's 10th blast of the season broke the backs of the Hawks, who were held scoreless after a two-run second by the DU pitching "kitchen sink."

Luke Burnidge, who started Saturday's rain-hampered game vs USI, started this one as well, then turned it over to freshman Austin Simms, who gave the Panthers 3 1/3 scoreless innings before senior Austin Faulconer - Friday's hero with a complete-game shutout of William Jewell - came on to pitch the seventh and eighth innings, allowing just two hits.

That set the stage for senior closer Gage Jacobs to finish it, with a game-ending double-play setting the stage for the traditional dogpile at the mound by the league champions.

Faulconer (7-5) picked up the victory, extending his DU record for career pitching wins to 28.

"I'm just so proud of the fight these guys have shown," said Nasby, who improved to 11-1 in GLVC Tourney games with his second title in three championship-game efforts. "We never think the moment is too big for us and no matter the score, we move on to the next pitch.

"Our guys are banged up and we need a few days to recuperate and then get after it in the (NCAA) Regional."

Quincy fell to 39-14 with the loss after losing to the Panthers in the title game for the second straight year.

Drury out-hit the Hawks 11-7, but Quincy left 11 runners on base to just four by the Panthers. Quincy left the bases loaded in the fifth inning and left two runners on in the second, third, sixth and eighth innings.

"Quincy is a fantastic club and it was one of those days where they hit it harder, but we happened to be in the right spot defensively," Nasby said. "Austin Simms was huge for us today. We have a lot of good things to come from him."

Ryan Wadkins had three hits and drove in a run, while Williams and Rafter had two hits apiece for DU, which beat the Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 seeds to win the tournament, representing the highest seed (#7) ever to capture the GLVC title.

David Jacob had two of Quincy's seven hits, and J.P. Meyer's two-run homer in the second represented the Hawks scoring.

The championship was the sixth for Drury in GLVC sports for the 2014-15 school year, joining men's and women's swimming and diving, men's basketball, women's basketball and men's tennis.