MARION, Ill.— The Drury Panthers scored a run in the bottom of the 11
th and survived an elimination game with a 4-3 win against the top seed and regular season conference champion Lewis in Game 6 of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament at Mt. Dew Park in Marion, Illinois, on Thursday night.
The fourth-seeded Panthers advance with a 32-22, while the Flyers are knocked out of the league tournament in two games and will wait for a potential NCAA-II regional bid with a 36-16 record.
Drury was one out away from advancing in the ninth inning as they led 3-1, but Lewis tied the game with two runs and evened the game on an RBI single from GLVC Player of the Year Mikey Kocen.
The Panthers loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth with one out, but reliever Daniel Rosado got back-to-back strikeouts to get the game to extra innings.
Drury got the winning run in the bottom of the 11
th. The Panthers loaded the bases with one out and
Kaden Byrne, who reached base with a one-out single, scored on a ground ball by
Luke Matschiner. The Flyers got a force-out at second, but Matschiner out-raced Lewis' attempt at a double-play, allowing the winning run to cross the plate.
Gage Hayes (7-1) pitched the 10
th and 11
th innings in relief to get the win. Rosado (1-1) took the loss for Lewis. Drury starter
Nick Gales went 7.1 innings and only allowed one run on seven hits while walking one and striking out two.
"To win a game like this you need to play big in some spots and make big plays," said Drury head coach
Scott Nasby. "Unfortunately, for a couple of innings there, we didn't have big plays when we could have but in the 11
th, we were able to do enough to get that run across. Gales was phenomenal and gave us one of the best postseason pitching outing in our program's history."
The Panthers were out-hit 12-7, and two of Drury's seven hits came in the 11
th, one a bunt-single from defensive replacement
Conner Flieg. It was Flieg's seventh hit of the year and loaded the bases to set up the winning run.
"Conner laid down a perfect bunt," stated Nasby. "If (the Lewis) second baseman isn't backing up that play, we win the game right there. But we told him to be ready for that situation and told him, if there are less than two outs, we were going to try and bunt and he did a perfect job."
Landon Willbrand had two of Drury's hits, going 2 for 4 with an RBI and a walk in the 11
th that helped load the bases. Willbrand put the Panthers in front 3-1 in the fourth inning on a single to centerfield that drove in one run and he circled the bases on a ball that got past the Flyers centerfielder.
Both teams stranded 11 runners in the game and for both teams, it was their second extra-inning game in as many days. The Panthers rallied from an 8-2 deficit against Indianapolis on Wednesday to go 11 innings but lost 9-8 to the Greyhounds. Lewis lost their handle on a 5-0 lead in the late innings against eighth-seeded Missouri-St. Louis and lost to the Tritons 8-7.
Thursday's game was supposed to be a 12:30 pm start, but was delayed nearly five hours by a weather delay. The remaining two games on Thursday were postponed until Friday.
Drury will play Friday night at 7:30 pm against the loser of the UMSL and Indianapolis game that is scheduled for a 12:30 pm start on Friday.
#WonDrury
