SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Drury got two complete-game pitching performances in a doubleheader sweep of Southwest Baptist on Saturday at US Baseball Park in Ozark. The Panthers won the first game 11-0, then followed with a 7-3 win in game two.
Drury improved to 19-12 and 10-5 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, while the Bearcats dropped to 7-22 and 3-8 in the GLVC.
Mason Meeks (5-2) fired a four-hit shutout in game one and first baseman
Cooper Munro blasted two home runs and ended the game with five runs batted in.
Drury took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run homer by
Luke Burk, then Munro capped a five-run third inning with a two-run shot to left field. Munro hit another bomb in the fifth with a three-run home run that gave the Panthers a 10-0 lead.
"Cooper squared up his fastballs," said Drury head coach
Scott Nasby. "He's been swinging through those and trying to find his stroke, but hopefully, today gets him back where he needs to be. If you can come up with a couple of home runs, then runs can accumulate pretty quick."
Meeks went all seven innings and surrendered just four hits, no runs and one walk with seven strikeouts.
In game two, Southwest Baptist pulled within a run of Drury in the fifth inning, but the Panthers got a three-run homer from
Brooks Sunny in the sixth to pull away.
Drury built an early lead with a run in the first inning, two in the second and another run in the third to go ahead 4-0. The Bearcats pulled within one in the fifth inning, scoring three times. Kyler Charchum drove in a run with a ground ball, then Zeke Skinner's two-run home run trimmed Drury's lead to one, 4-3. Sunny put the game out of reach an inning later, though, with his sixth homer of the year that drove in three runs and gave the Panthers a 7-3 lead.
"We could have opened it up early in the game, but we didn't," said Nasby. "Cooper had a clutch bunt late in the game that set up the home run and luckily, we were able to put the game away."
Cade Waits (4-3) went all seven innings for the win and struck out a season-high nine batters. Chase Wilson (0-3) also pitched a complete game for Southwest Baptist but took the loss.
The sweep extended Drury's winning streak of four games as the Panthers won the first three games of their four-game series against the Bearcats. The final game of the series is Sunday at noon at US Baseball Park in Ozark.
#allweDUiswin
