OZARK, Mo.— Drury stayed alive in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament with a 16-4 win over Lewis at US Baseball Park in Ozark on Friday.
The Panthers, seeded fifth in the tournament, improved to 30-22 while dropping the eighth-seeded Flyers to 27-24.
Drury banged out a season-high 24 hits and got on the board early with two runs in the first inning.
Aaron Mann singled with two outs in the opening frame and scored on
Collin Fraley's double.
Ryan Kayhill then drove Fraley home on a base hit to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead.
The Panthers blew open a 2-1 advantage in the fourth with four runs, and again, each run came home with two outs.
Ethan Owens singled to keep the frame alive, then was called out attempting to steal second base. A video replay review overturned the call, however, and Owens scored moments later on
Brandt Ollinger's single.
Brant Schaffitzel then drove in two more runs with a triple and
Clayton Engel's RBI-hit capped the scoring in the inning.
Drury added two runs in the fifth and scored five times in the sixth inning to take a 13-2 lead.
"We got barrels on the ball, and we laid off the slider better than we did yesterday," said Panthers head coach
Scott Nasby. "We got a great pitching performance, so we were able to get a lead and then pull away."
Tom Tewes (6-2) got the win for Drury going seven innings allowing seven hits and two runs with one walk and six strikeouts. Blake Marks (5-4) took the loss for Lewis.
12 different Drury players had at least one hit in the game as
Aaron Mann went 3 for 5 with two runs,
Ethan Owens was 3 for 6 with two RBI's and a steal, and
Collin Fraley went 3 for 5 with two runs and a double.
"This is how our team has been this year – if we don't play defense, we've gotten spanked, but when we've played good defense, then we've been in about every game we've played," noted Nasby. "So it's about getting out of our own way and putting some solid things together on the mound and at the plate."
The Panthers advance to Game 10 of the tournament will play the loser of the Quincy-Illinois Springfield game on Saturday at 12:30 pm at US Baseball Park in Ozark.
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