BOLIVAR, Mo. — Drury baseball scored eight times over a three-inning stretch to secure a 10-3 victory over Southwest Baptist and a Great Lakes Valley Conference series split with the Bearcats Saturday afternoon at Dodson Field.
Drury received balanced contributions from up and down its lineup, with nine different Panthers recording at least one hit in the game and five of those registering multiple hits. Additionally, six different batters drove in a run, including senior first baseman Logan Reidelberger, who drove home a pair of baserunners with his record-tying double that highlighted DU's three-run fifth inning.
The Panthers also benefited from a strong combined mound effort, as four hurlers limited the Bearcats to just four hits. Porter Slattery (2-0) allowed just one run on one hit while fanning three batters over 4.0 innings of relief to earn the victory. The freshman lefty followed four innings from senior right-hander Markell Dixon to start the afternoon, and Sam Peterson combined with Alex Logan on a scoreless ninth inning.
In addition to Reidelberger's two-hit, two-RBI performance, fellow senior Carter Wambach finished 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs, while Luke Matschiner added two hits and scored two key runs to go along with his 30th stolen base of the season.
Matschiner sparked a pair of Drury scoring rallies with base hits, including the third inning when he singled with one out before swiping second and moving to third on a wild pitch. Jackson Crider followed with a sacrifice fly to center to bring in Matschiner with the go-ahead run.
With one out in the fifth, Matschiner came through with another base hit to spark a critical three-run surge. Crider drew a walk, setting up Reidelberger's 21st double of the year that not only gave DU a 4-1 lead, but matched the Panthers' single-season doubles record, previously shared by Clayton Engel and R.J. Knese.
Xander Schmitt capped the fifth-inning scoring with a sacrifice fly to make it a four run contest.
After the Bearcats plated a run to make it a 5-2 game, the Panthers went back to work in the seventh, putting their first seven batters on base en route to a five-run outburst. Singles by Crider and Connor Bain, as well as a walk to Reidelberger, set up a run-scoring hit by Smith that extended the lead back to four runs. Wambach followed with a two-run double, and Colin McClure added to the DU tally with a single that brought home two more for a 10-2 cushion.
From that point Slattery turned in three scoreless frame and allowed just one seventh-inning SBU tally in getting the game to the ninth. Peterson fanned a pair of Bearcats, and Logan closed out the win by retiring the only batter he faced.
LOOKING AHEAD
With its victory Drury (31-19, 22-10 GLVC) completed the conference season tied with Indianapolis for third place in the GLVC standings, following regular-season champion Missouri S&T and second-place UMSL. The Panthers will await official word from the conference office on their postseason pairing for next week's GLVC Baseball Championship, which runs Wednesday (May 6) through Saturday (May 9) in Marion, Ill.
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