NCAA-II Midwest Regional Website

ST. CHARLES - Solid pitching and timely hitting returned to the Drury dugout on Saturday morning, as the fifth-seeded Panthers downed top-seed Quincy 4-1 to stay alive and send the Hawks packing from the NCAA-II Midwest Regional at the Lou Brock Sports Complex on the campus of Lindenwood University.

Drury (33-23-1) will get a rematch tonight with No. 4 seed Truman State (33-20) in a game scheduled for 7 p.m., but likely to be later after rains moving through St. Charles have delayed the start of the scheduled 3 p.m. game between William Jewell and Ashland to 4 at the earliest.

The Panthers fell to Truman 9-5 on Friday night, and will start the rematch as one of three teams remaining in the field - the Bulldogs and Panthers as well as the Ashland-Jewell survivor.

Coach Scott Nasby's Panthers got a strong pitching performance from sophomore Luke Burnidge, freshman Austin Simms and then closer Gage Jacobs to defeat Quincy for the second time in seven days. The Panthers defeated the Hawks 7-2 last Sunday for the Great Lakes Valley Conference tourney championship and automatic NCAA tourney bid in Westfield, Ind.

Burnidge allowed five hits and a run over five innings before Simms (4-2) worked three shutout innings of relief before Jacobs came on to pitch the ninth and snag his 13th save, tying the DU single-season record set by Laurent Zenoni in 2012.
 

It was a 1-1 game until the bottom of the 7th, when Ryan Colombo led off with a single, Dallas Williams singled, and both later scored on a two-run double by Bobby Lang for the 3-1 DU lead.

The Panthers added an insurance run in the eighth when, with two out, Spencer Wilmes singled and came home on a Ryan Wadkins RBI single.

"We had some great performances at the plate from Wilmes and Colombo ... they made great adjustments to get the job done," Nasby said. "The combo of Burnidge and Simms was big again today, and I tip my cap to both of them for being bulldogs on the mound when it meant the most. Bobby Lang made an adjustment and a big knock.

"I'm proud of the guys for grabbing momentum early in the game and keeping it. We're looking forward to playing Truman again tonight."

Drury had 12 hits to eight by the Hawks. Colombo went 3-for-4, and Wadkins, Luke Tewes and Wilmes had two hits each.

It will be the sixth meeting of the season tonight between the Bulldogs and Panthers, who split the four-game set at Meador Park in April before Truman used a seven-run second inning to beat Drury 9-5 on Friday night and remain the only unbeaten team in the field.