EAST PEORIA, Ill. – Drury dropped two games in East Peoria on Friday to Indianapolis, 2-1, and Illinois Springfield, 4-1. The two losses eliminated the Panthers from the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Tournament.
GAME ONE vs #6 Indianapolis
Indianapolis started the first game off with their bats on fire. Three of the first four batters singled for the Greyhounds to score the game's first run. The run triggered an early pitching change for Drury, moving
Jordyn Foley from the flex position to the pitcher,
AJ Agers from pitcher to first base, and
Kaley Adzick from first base to the designated player. Foley was able to get the final two outs of the first inning with no more damage.
At the bottom of the first, the Panthers had two singles, but
Landry Cochran and
Taylor Hartsell were left stranded on the bases.
There was no action in the second inning. The Greyhounds added one more run in the third to move their advantage to two runs.
Drury got on the board in the fourth inning.
AJ Agers and
Kaley Adzick singled to start the inning, and each were able to advance an extra base on the throw trying to get Agers at third.
Brooklyn LaChappa doubled a few pitches later to score Agers. A quick throw-in from the outfield forced the tying run to stay at third. The Panthers would go down on the next two batters to end the inning, 2-1.
The Greyhounds had two more prime opportunities to extend their lead. In the fifth, a leadoff triple put
Jordyn Foley in a jam, but the right-handed pitcher struck two of the next three batters out to avoid another UIndy run. In the seventh inning, UIndy had another runner reach third with one out but Foley forced a ground out and got a strikeout.
Drury only had one hit in the final two innings, giving the Panthers their first loss in the GLVC tournament, 2-1.
The Indianapolis lineup recorded nine hits, only one came from the bottom half of the starting nine.
Taylor Hartsell led the offensive efforts for Drury with two knocks.
Brooklyn LaChappa had the only Drury RBI.
AJ Agers lost after facing four batters before being pulled.
Jordyn Foley threw 6.2 innings of six hits, one hit, and four strikeouts.
GAME TWO vs #5 Illinois Springfield
Illinois Springfield struck in the first inning of the elimination game. A leadoff walk into a steal placed Ella Brinkley on second base. A groundout moved her to third. Brinkley went on to score on a groundout from Taylor Zawacki.
Drury had little to no offense until the fifth inning. In the fifth,
Victoria Garland singled followed by a
Reece Anderson single. Garland was then run by
Kenna Trower. The Panthers then went down on back-to-back strikeouts to end their threat.
The Prairie Stars added an insurance run in the sixth on an infield single after a throwing error by
Jordyn Foley.
UIS blew the game open in the seventh inning with back-to-back doubles that pushed across two runs.
The 4-0 deficit did not phase the Panthers entering the seventh inning. A leadoff walk from
Kaley Adzick kickstarted the inning. Adzick was run for by
Mykala Dodds. Two batters later,
Victoria Garland singled to left field on a blooper to advance Dodds. Now with two outs,
Gabrielle Bax singled down the left field line to score Dodds and move Garland to third. However, Drury's late-game efforts ended on a fielder's choice. UIS grabbed the elimination win, 4-1.
Victoria Garland was the only Panther with two hits.
Gabrielle Bax was responsible for the only RBI.
Jordyn Foley threw a complete game in the loss. She allowed four runs on five hits.
UP NEXT
Drury will now wait to see if they will make the NCAA-II Midwest Regionals on Monday at 9 am. Illinois Springfield now plays for the tournament championship tomorrow against Indianapolis.
#OneDrury
