SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Drury swept #25 Pittsburg State on Wednesday behind a walk-off from AJ Agers in game one, 5-4, and a run-rule win in game two, 9-1, to end the Gorillas seven-game winning streak. The wins were Drury's third and fourth-ranked win in the last eight days.
 
GAME ONE
Drury started the first game of the doubleheader with a 1-run lead in the first inning. The Gorillas walked the first three batters of the game, Sophia Luetticke, Landry Cochran, and Avery Budde to load the bases. A strikeout put AJ Agers in the box. A ground out from Agers scored Luetticke for the only run of the inning.
 
The Panthers added a second run to the board in the fifth inning. Victoria Garland singled to right field to score AJ Agers from third base.
 
Trailing by two, Pitt State answered with four runs in the top half of the sixth. The Gorillas scored those runs on two hits, an error, and a walk.
 
After Pitt State took a 4-2 lead, Drury responded with two of their own to knot it up at four. A single on a bunt from Sophia Luetticke started the inning to extend her hit streak to 22 games. A double from Taylor Hartsell scored Luetticke. The following batter, Agers, would reach on an error to score Hartsell.
 
The bats went silent in the seventh sending it to extras. In the top of the eighth, Pitt State singled to start the inning followed by a strikeout. The third batter of the inning for the Gorillas rolled over into a 1-6-3 double play.
 
A leadoff hit by pitch and an error by the shortstop in the bottom half of the eighth put Avery Budde on second and Taylor Hartsell on first. AJ Agers would battle the windy conditions and poke a ball past the first baseman to score Budde from second.
 
The walk-off from Agers was her second one in extra innings in the past five days.
 
AJ Agers started in the circle, pitching a complete game giving up four hits and three earned runs. Agers also struck out five. In the batter's box, Agers led all Panthers with two hits and two RBIs.
 
GAME TWO
In the second game of the doubleheader, there were only two combined base runners in the first two innings of the game with neither team threatening.
 
The Gorillas were the first to crack the score sheet at the top of the third. An error gave Pitt State a runner to lead off the inning followed by a walk and a sac bunt to put two runners in scoring position. A single up the middle scored one for the Gorillas for their only run of the game.
 
The floodgates opened in the bottom half of the third. Drury put up six runs on two hits. Pitt State had three errors in the inning. Avery Budde grabbed the first RBI of the inning when Natalie Wilks scored on a double. Drury added another run when Taylor Hartsell tried to lay a squeeze bunt down and Sophia Luetticke took off for home, the bunt was not put down, but Luetticke was able to score on the steal. Later in the inning Brooklyn LaChappa and Madi Divis would push runners across the plate.
 
Both teams' offenses went silent for the next two innings, with only three runners reaching in that time frame.
 
Three runs away from a run-rule win over #25 in the sixth, the Panthers kicked it into gear once more. A Landry Cochran single started the run. Budde and Hartsell would both single to load the bases for AJ Agers. Agers would single to score Cochran. Brooklyn LaChappa grounded out to second base but scored Budde. Hartsell would score on a Victoria Garland single to walk off run rule the Gorillas, 9-1 in six innings.
 
Avery Budde and Brooklyn LaChappa both had two hits for the Panthers, leading the way. LaChappa grabbed three RBIs in game two. Natalie Wilks started for Drury, going six innings giving up three hits and no earned runs.
 
Sophia Luetticke did not get a hit in the game, ending her hit streak at 22 games, the longest in Drury history.
 
UP NEXT
The Panthers will travel to Indianapolis for a Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) doubleheader on Saturday before playing Illinois-Springfield on Sunday.
 
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