Sunday Game 1 | Sunday Game 2
Season Statistics
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Drury Panthers rallied for three runs in the seventh and two more runs in the eighth to down the Truman Baseball team 7-6 in the first game on Sunday afternoon. The Panthers then defeated the Bulldogs 9-3 in the night cap to take three of four in the opening weekend series.
Dan Plecki hit a two-run home run in the top of the first and the Bulldog built a 5-1 lead over the Panthers through five innings. However up three in the bottom of the seventh, Christian Witt got his first hit to strikeout but the wild pitch allowed the runner to reach first. Four straight hits by the Panthers tied the game before Witt retired the final two batters with the winning run 90 feet away.
The Bulldogs bounced back as Devon Myers and Steven Rose both doubled in the extra inning to put Truman on top. In the Panthers half of the frame, a hit batsman and a walk led to a Maury Wilmes walk-off double that scored the winning runs.
Michael Reese led off the nightcap with a triple and Luke Crader singled him home to get Truman the early lead.
Caleb Cole gave Drury the lead back with a bases clearing triple in the bottom of the first with two outs.
Scott Doggett doubled in Kenny Swanson to trim the lead to 3-2 in the second and the team exchanged runs in the middle innings before Drury plated two in the seventh and three in the night to take their third game of the series.
INSIDE THE SERIES:
Devon Myers and Michael Reese each hit .400 and had a slugging percentage over .700…Myers was 6-for-15 with two doubles a home run and four runs scored while Reese was 4-for-10 with three runs scored, a double and a triple…the Bulldogs hit .232 for the four game series while the Panthers hit .318…Jarrett Eiskina had a team leading six strikeouts and allowed no runs in four innings of work.
Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box | Season Statistics
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Truman baseball team split their season opening doubleheader and the first two games of their weekend series with Drury University. The Bulldogs lost game one 9-0 but took the nightcap 10-9.
The Panthers, picked to finish first in the Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division, got the offense rolling early as they plated four runs in the first two innings and had a dominating performance on the mound turned in by Blake Wixon. The Drury hurler tossed seven shutout innings allowing just two hits and striking out 10 en route to the victory.
Leadoff batter Michael Reese doubled to start game two and then scored on groundout by Luke Crader to stake the 'Dogs to the early lead. However the Panthers took advantage of a pair of errors in the bottom of the inning and scored three times to take the lead.
Reese led off the third with a walk and came home on a single by Devon Myers. Dan Plecki followed with an RBI single up the middle and Kenny Swanson singled to center to score two more. Swanson then came in as the fifth run for Truman on a wild pitch to double up Drury 6-3.
The Panthers pushed five across in the bottom of the fourth after a single scored two and a double down the left field line by Brett Neill gave Drury an 8-6 advantage.
Kody Stricklin singled to right to score Swanson and Drew Garwood to knot the score at eight in the fifth.
In the eighth, the Bulldogs loaded the bases with no outs and Steven Rose was able to bring Stricklin in with a sac fly foul out. A two-out bases loaded walk to Swanson gave Truman a much needed insurance run.
Michael Bigogno singled in Matt Stacks and put the tying run at third base with one-out in the bottom of the eighth but Christian Witt struck out RJ Knese looking and got Neill to ground out to second to pick up the win for the Bulldogs.
Jarrett Eiskina started and went four innings striking out six Panthers and was followed to the hill by Logan Siegler and Witt. Swanson had three runs batted in while Crader picked up a pair of hits in five at bats.
