ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The Drury Panthers moved back into first place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference’s West Division with a sweep of a doubleheader on Saturday at Missouri-St. Louis. Drury won game one 7-2, and shutout the Tritons in game two 7-0.
The Panthers raised their record to 32-16 and 18-8 in the GLVC. Quincy, who had a half-game lead on Drury entering the weekend, lost three of four against William Jewell during the last two days to drop their league record to 18-10 to put the Panthers in the division lead. UMSL fell to 15-29 and 9-17 in the conference.
Drury grabbed an early lead in game one scoring four runs in the first inning. The Tritons pulled within two in the third inning but the Panthers added a run in the fourth and two more in the seventh as K.K. Daniel scored on a wild pitch and Ethan Owens’s bunt scored Ryan Kayhill to give Drury a five-run lead.
Ryan Colombo (8-2) got the win going six innings allowing seven hits, two runs and one earned run with four walks and four strikeouts. Alex Austin pitched three innings in relief for his sixth save.
Kayhill went 3 for 3 with two runs, a RBI, and walk to lead the Panthers at the plate.
In game two, Drury had another four-run first inning on their way to a 7-0 win. Nic Perkins drove in two runs with a double and would later score on a Tritons throwing error. Devan O’Bryan capped the Panthers scoring in the opening frame with a RBI single.
Drury tacked on three more runs in the third as Caleb Essick drove in a pair of runs with a single and Justin Abernathy’s bunt single produced another run giving the Panthers a 7-0 lead.
Garrett Woods (8-2) fired six shutout innings allowing six hits, no walks with seven strikeouts in the win.
Drury can clinch the West Division title on Sunday if they can win one of the two games in Sunday’s doubleheader at USML. Game one begins at noon in St. Louis as tomorrow’s action ends the regular season.
