MARION, Ill.— Drury avenged their 11-inning opening round loss to Indianapolis as they knocked the Greyhounds out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament with a 10-8 win in an elimination game on Friday night at Mt. Dew Park in Marion, Illinois.
The Panthers, the number four seed, kept their season alive and advanced with a 33-22 record. Indianapolis fell to 30-22.
Drury came back from a 4-0 deficit in the first inning and broke a 7-7 tie with three runs in the top of the ninth. The Panthers went in front on a bases-loaded single by
Landon Willbrand and added another on the play as
Connor Bain scored from second on a throwing error.
Wyatt Morgan drove in another run to give Drury a 10-7 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
"I'd have to look at the stats, but I think we've won more games when we've been losing after four innings than we've won when we were leading," said Drury head coach
Scott Nasby. "Honestly, in the dugout, our mentality is 'we've got 'em where we want 'em.' And in extra innings, we've been pretty good. Indy got us in extra innings last time, but we got some huge clutch hits and hit barrels all night long and also had some pitchers step up in some big-time spots today."
Panthers left-hander
Cody Bahl, who entered the game in the eighth, allowed a run in the ninth but closed out the game with two strikeouts in the inning.
Bahl (5-4) got the win in relief and recorded his 300
th career strikeout for the final out of the game. Frankie Klemm (5-1) took the loss for Indianapolis.
After allowing four runs in the first inning, Drury starter
Gage Hayes found his rhythm in the middle innings and retired 11 straight batters from the third inning into the sixth, giving the Panthers a chance to get back in the game. Hayes went seven innings and recorded seven strikeouts against two walks.
"Gage did a great job sticking it out," noted Nasby. "He gave up four in the first, but came up and gave a great performance when there were not many pieces left in the pen."
The Panthers tied the game at 5-5 in the sixth and took a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth, only to have Indianapolis tie the game at 7-7 in the bottom half of the inning.
Wyatt Morgan ended the game going 2 for 4 with a run, and three runs batted in.
Kaden Byrne went 3 for 4 with three runs, two RBIs, and a double.
The Panthers won Friday's game after falling 9-8 in 11 innings to Indianapolis on Wednesday in the opening game of the tournament. Drury came from down 8-2 in the seventh to force extra innings, but fell in the game by a run.
Drury will play second-seeded Illinois Springfield at 12:30 pm on Saturday at Mt. Dew Park. The Panthers need to win to force Game 14 of the tournament and a rematch with the Prairie Stars at either 4 pm or 7:30 pm on Saturday.
#WonDrury
