SPRINGFIELD, Ill.— After suffering a heartbreaking defeat on Thursday, the Drury Panthers fought off elimination twice with a 7-5 win over Quincy, followed by a 15-7 victory against Wayne State (Mich.) in the NCAA-II Midwest Regional Tournament #2 at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois on Friday.
The Panthers will play Illinois Springfield on Saturday at noon in the first of two potential championship games. A Drury win would force a winner-take-all seventh game in the tournament at 3:30 pm on Saturday to advance to the SuperRegional next weekend.
In their first game on Friday, the Panthers rallied from 5-3 behind after seven innings and tied their game with Quincy in the eighth.
Brant Schaffitzel's bunt scored
Brandt Ollinger from third base to get Drury within a run; then the Panthers tied the game on
Clayton Engel's RBI single.
In the top of the ninth,
Cole Dunham belted a double to left field driving in
Jackson Dierenfeldt and Ollinger to put Drury in front.
Kaden Helsel pitched the bottom of the ninth and surrendered a lead-off walk, but the Panthers turned a 4-6-3 double play, and Dierenfeldt snared a line drive at his position at shortstop to end the game.
Drury starter
Kaleb Schmidt struck out nine batters in six innings but did not figure in the decision.
Tyler James (1-1) got the win in relief while Helsel picked up his third save and reliever Sam Stephens (2-2) took the loss for Quincy.
"We stayed in it," said Drury head coach
Scott Nasby about their first win of the day. "Schmidt pitched well, and we got on base a lot. We didn't score a ton, but we capitalized on those opportunities in the eighth, and ninth."
The Panthers carried momentum from their win over the Hawks into their next game as they scored at least one run in each of their first five innings building an early 9-2 lead over Wayne State.
Drury scored four runs in the second inning highlighted by a three-run double by
Aaron Mann. The Panthers added two more runs in the third on an RBI double by
Nikko Calabro and a single from
Jackson Dierenfeldt that produced another run. An inning later,
Clayton Engel and Aaron went back-to-back for home runs giving Drury a seven-run lead.
"(Wayne State) was coming off of a loss and we were coming off of a win," said Nasby. "We did have a little momentum going into that game, and it felt like a winner's bracket game for us in that we moved on with a win, and they were fighting for their lives after a loss."
Wayne State would threaten in the fifth, however, and scored three times to pull within four, 9-5. The Panthers answered with three more tallies in the bottom half of the inning as
Brandt Ollinger drove in a pair of runs with his second double of the game and Engel's RBI-double provided a 12-5 cushion.
Engel homered twice in the game as the junior from Ozark, Missouri went 3 for 4 with a pair of homers, a double and three RBI's. Mann also went 3 for 4 with a double, home run, and four runs batted in.
"I think this day says a lot about Engel," said Nasby. "He had a pretty rough night last night but to be able to come back like he did shows a lot of veteran leadership. That's what we need with a lot of young guys on our team – someone to show them that you can make some mistakes, but you come back and pick yourself up, and you pick up your teammates the next game."
Drury will take a 32-24 record into Saturday's match-up with Illinois Springfield while Quincy ended their season with a 32-20 record and Wayne State finished the year at 35-17.
The Panthers improved to 2-1 in this year's national tournament rebounding from a 5-4 loss to the Prairie Stars on Thursday. Drury will be four-games deep into the NCAA-II tournament for the third time in program history when they play UIS tomorrow.
#allweDUiswin
