SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Drury's annual 'Battle for Bell' baseball benefit contest with cross-town rival Missouri State has been set for Saturday, Oct. 3 at Mark Worley Field at Meador Park in Springfield. The 10th installment of the exhibition game will once again raise funds for the Howard Bell CoxHealth ALS Clinic in Springfield.
The Panthers and Bears will square off at 6:30 p.m. at Meador Park, the current home of Drury baseball, as well as the former home for Missouri State for more than three decades. The nine-inning matchup will follow the day's opening contest featuring Evangel and Mission at noon.
General admission tickets will be available for purchase at the gate for $5.
Since its inception in 2012, 'Battle for Bell' has assisted in the fight against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). A portion of ticket revenue will once again be directed to the local ALS Clinic, which provides coordinated care and support to ALS patients in the region.
The event honors the late Howard Bell and the ongoing quest to find a cure for ALS – commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Bell, who passed away from ALS in 2013, shared close connections with the Missouri State and Drury baseball programs. A three-year letterman for the Bears under Hall of Fame head coach Keith Guttin, Bell capped his collegiate career with a standout 1986 campaign in which he was honored as Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year after hitting .396 and helping MSU to a then-school-record 47 victories and its third straight AMCU Tournament title.
The Springfield native also spent more than a decade working on the baseball staff at Glendale High School and was an assistant under Mark Stratton, who later became the Panthers' head baseball coach in 2005. Bell was on the staff when Nasby played for the Falcons, and was named head coach at Glendale when Stratton departed to revive the Drury baseball program.
"We started Battle for Bell because there were obviously some mutual ties between Coach Bell and Missouri State and Drury," Panthers head coach Scott Nasby said. "Coach Bell played at SMS (at the time). He painted the old fence at Meador Park and played a big role in helping beautify the facility. So, to be able to play this game at Meador, and to be able to get Missouri State and the Bell family back there is going to be a tremendous thing for us and the community."
This year's Panthers-Bears match-up will mark the 10th time the two programs have staged the 'Battle for Bell' contest since the inaugural matchup in 2012. It will also be the fifth year Mission and Evangel have participated in the exhibition series.
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