OZARK, Mo.— The Drury Panthers had a strong pitching performance in game one and rallied late to win game two in a doubleheader sweep of William Jewell on Saturday at US Baseball Park in Ozark. Drury took the first game 4-1 and came back from a 7-2 deficit to win game two 9-8 on a bottom of the ninth inning RBI-double by
Brandt Ollinger.
The Panthers raised their record to 26-20 and 18-11 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference while William Jewell dropped to 17-27-1 and 11-18 in the league.
Kaleb Schmidt (3-3) got the win for Drury in game one going eight innings allowing five hits and only one run with one walk and three strikeouts.
Alex Austin pitched the ninth inning to earn his third save.
"Kaleb had some quick innings and didn't mess around," said Drury head coach
Scott Nasby. "He saw that he could be dominant with his fastball, and he had some great defense behind him."
The Panthers got on the board in the first inning with a two-run home run from
Aaron Mann. It was the sixth home run of the year for the freshman from Little Rock as he went 3 for 3 in the game. Drury added a run in the third inning on as
Clayton Engel scored from third base on a wild pitch and he scored again in the fifth on an error.
Jackson Dierenfeldt went 4 for 4 at the plate in game one for the Panthers.
Drury never had a lead in game two until the bottom of the eighth when they fought back out of a 7-2 hole to take a one-run lead. The Panthers got within striking distance in the seventh inning when
Clayton Engel's two-run homer got his team within three, 7-4. Drury then scored four times in the eighth and took the lead when Engel scored from third when Cardinals reliever Tyler Murphy was called for a balk.
William Jewell responded with a run in the ninth as Trent Bollman's two-out, RBI single tied the game at 8-8 and kept the Cardinals alive.
Ryan Kayhill singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth for Drury and Ollinger belted a shot off of the left-field fence for a double that scored Kayhill and ended the game.
"I think the big thing was we didn't get down on ourselves after some innings where things didn't go our way," said Nasby. "That's what happened at UMSL last week. We made four errors in a game and just checked out. We made some mistakes today, but we didn't let it affect us."
Kaden Helsel (6-5) got the win in relief for Drury as entered the game in the fifth inning, retired 10 straight batters, and went 4.1 innings allowing two hits and one run with no walks and one strikeout.
The series concludes on Sunday as the Panthers host William Jewell at noon. Before the game, Drury will honor their graduating players as part of Senior Day at US Baseball Park in Ozark.
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