ST. LOUIS, Mo.- Drury ended the regular season with a split at Missouri-St. Louis on Sunday as the Panthers won game one 4-0 in eight innings but dropped the second game on a bottom of the seventh home run from the Tritons in a 2-0 loss.
Drury captured the Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division title as they finished 19-9 in the league and 33-17 overall. The Panthers passed Quincy in the final weekend of the regular season as the Hawks ended the year 17-10 in the conference. UMSL’s record ends at 16-30 and 10-18 in the GLVC.
Game one was scoreless through seven innings until Drury broke out with four runs in the eighth. Ryan Colombo got the Panthers on the board with a sacrifice fly caught in foul ground that scored Caleb Essick. Nic Perkins then drove in two runs with a double and Ryan Kayhill’s triple gave scored Perkins put Drury ahead 4-0.
Austin Simms (6-4) worked all eight innings firing a two-hit shutout for Drury. Simms walked only one batter while striking out six.
Justin Abernathy went 2 for 3 for the Panthers with a double and a run scored.
Jacob Monti’s two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh won the game for UMSL in the second game of the doubleheader. Drury was held to just four hits as the Panthers were held scoreless for the first time this season.
Nick Ulrey led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk setting up Monti’s game-winner homer.
Avery Jennings (1-3) took the loss despite going six innings allowing five hits and two runs with one walk and one strikeout.
Jacob Renfrow (6-3) got the win for the Tritons going seven innings allowing four hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
Drury will open play on Thursday in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament hosted by U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark. The Panthers will enter the tournament as the top seed from the West Division and will play the fourth place team in the East in the opening round. The GLVC postseason is an eight-team, double-elimination tournament.
