EAST PEORIA, Ill – Top-seeded Drury opened the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Softball Tournament with a 5-2 win over #8 Rockhurst in East Peoria on Wednesday morning. The win improved Drury to 32-19 and dropped Rockhurst to 18-25.
Drury struck first in the first game of the tournament. A
Taylor Hartsell two-out walk started the first inning for the Panthers.
AJ Agers would then single and reach second on the throw, trying to gun Hartsell down at third.
Kaley Adzick doubled down the right-field line to score Agers and Hartsell.
The Panthers added two more to their total in the second inning.
Brooklyn LaChappa had a lead-off single followed by a
Victoria Garland walk. A sac bunt from
Reece Anderson advanced both runs a base.
Gabrielle Bax then singled up the middle to score Garland and LaChappa, giving Drury a 4-0 lead.
Following the first two innings, both team's bats were quiet until the fifth. Rockhurst scored for the first time. The Hawks had a leadoff single that eventually came around to score after a walk and a single.
The Hawks added their second run of the game in the sixth inning after a leadoff homer on a two-strike count. The home run triggered a pitching change for Drury, pulling
Jordyn Foley for
AJ Agers in the circle. Agers would go on to get two outs in the inning with the bases loaded.
Sophia Luetticke gave the Panthers insurance in the sixth inning. Following a
Gabrielle Bax, she was run for by
Kenna Trower, Luetticke tripled into right-center field on the eighth pitch of the at-bat to score Trower.
Rockhurst could not answer in the seventh, giving Drury the 5-2 win in the first round of the GLVC Tournament.
Five different Panthers had two hits, for all ten of their hits.
Kaley Adzick and
Gabrielle Bax each had two RBIs in the game. Drury drew five walks in the rainy weather.
Jordyn Foley picked up her ninth win of the season. She threw 5.1 innings, allowed seven hits, and two runs.
AJ Agers was given the save in 1.2 innings of work.
Drury will meet with #5 Illinois Springfield in the winner's bracket semifinals tomorrow at 1 pm. Rockhurst will get #4 McKendree at 10 am in an elimination game.
#WonDrury
