WARRENSBURG, Mo.- Drury hung on to defeat 12th ranked Central Missouri 6-5 on the road Tuesday night in Warrensburg.
The Panthers won for the seventh time in eight games and improved to 16-7 while the Mules dropped to 20-7.
Freshman Avery Jennings (1-0) got the win in his first collegiate start. The Columbia, Missouri native, who had six relief appearances entering play on Tuesday, went 5.2 innings allowing six hits and two runs with no walks and two strikeouts. Alex Austin struck out four batters in 2.1 innings to earn his third save of the season.
After four scoreless innings, the Panthers got on the board in the top of the fifth on a bases loaded ground ball by Shane Benes. Drury opened up a four-run in the sixth with back-to-back home runs from Riley Herron and Clayton Engle. Herron hit a two-run shot that was followed by Engle’s solo bomb. It was the first home runs of the season for both. Drury added another run in the inning taking advantage of a Mules error.
Drury had to hang on from there. Central Missouri scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth but a Dylan Bradshaw RBI single gave the Panthers a 6-2 lead in the seventh. The Mules struck for three runs in the bottom of the inning capped by an inside the park, two-run home run by Collin Nevil.
Austin got Drury out of the seventh and allowed only one hit in his 2.1 innings of relief.
“Our freshmen up and down the roster showed up big all game,” said Drury head coach Scott Nasby. “The outing Jennings gave us was tremendous. Herron and Engle unloading on some balls was great to see as well. We didn’t play our best game but we were able to pitch it well in big spots to win.”
Caleb Essick, Nic Perkins, and KK Daniel all went 2 for 5 at the plate for the Panthers with each of them scoring a run.
Brandon Reid (0-1) took the loss for the Mules.
Drury returns home for a four-game conference series this weekend against Truman State.The two teams play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 2 p.m. at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark.
