MARION, Ill.— After their dramatic, 11-inning win yesterday, the Drury Panthers rolled to a 12-4 win over William Jewell in Game 7 of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament on Friday at Mountain Dew Park in Marion, Illinois.
 
Drury, the sixth seed in the tournament, improved to 29-23 and dropped the seventh-seeded Cardinals to the loser's bracket with a 30-22 record.
 
The Panthers fell behind 1-0 after the top of the first but responded with two runs in their half of the first with RBI doubles from Luke Burk and Max Elmer. Burk added to the Drury lead with a two-run home run in the third, his second of the tournament and 10^th of the year.
 
"Getting those runs in the bottom of the first was huge," said Drury head coach Scott Nasby. "When you get scored on in the first inning, you need to send a message and respond and being able to do that was big. We swung the bats extremely well and pitched it well again today."
 
William Jewell pulled within one after scoring two runs in the top of the fifth, but the Panthers blew the game open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and four more in the sixth inning.
 
Drury got a two-run homer in the fifth from Greydon Miller to take a 6-3 lead. The freshman from Ozark had two at-bats for the season entering the tournament, but injuries pressed him into Thursday's game in the late innings and into a starting role on Friday. Miller scored twice in Friday's win, drawing a walk to go with his home run. 
 
"(Graydon's home run) gave us a big spark," said Nasby. "He's worked his tail off just to get back on the travel roster. He started hitting well in our JV games and he gave us good defense and a lot of energy today."
 
Connor Bain hit a bases-loaded triple in the sixth to give Drury an 11-3 lead, and the Panthers capped their scoring in the frame as Cooper Munro scored from third on a bunt by Kaden Byrne.
 
Mason Meeks (8-4), who got the win in relief on Thursday, picked up his second win of the tournament, this time in a start. Meeks went five innings, allowing eight hits, three runs, and two earned runs with two walks and three strikeouts.
 
Jackson Bodinson (6-4) took the loss for William Jewell.
 
Bain went 3 for 5 at the plate with two runs, three RBI's, a triple and a stolen base. All nine Drury batters had at least one hit and the Panthers collected nine extra-base hits in the win.
 
Drury will play Game 12 of the tournament on Saturday at 7:30 pm against the winner of Game 10, scheduled for 12:30 pm on Saturday.
 
 
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