OZARK, Mo. — Drury and Quincy had their third confrontation for the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament championship in four years and, while the Panthers had won the previous two title games against the Hawks, this time the Quincy held off a late rally to prevail 4-3 over the Panthers at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark on Sunday.
Drury, the regular season champions in the GLVC-West, fell to 36-18 and will learn tonight if they have made the NCAA-II national tournament field. Quincy improved to 32-20 and clinched an automatic qualifying berth to the Midwest Regional.
Trailing 4-1 after seven innings, Drury got within striking distance in their last two at-bats. With two out in the top of the eighth, K.K. Daniel hit a two-out single driving home Clayton Engel cutting Quincy’s lead to 4-2.
In the ninth, the Panthers got within a run of the lead and put the game-tying run in scoring position. Down to their final out, freshman Ethan Owens, who was a defensive replacement an inning earlier, used his only at-bat to drive in Devan O’Bryan to cut the Hawks’ lead to 4-3. With runners on first and second, Quincy closer Cole Crawford got Ryan Colombo to pop up in foul ground to first baseman Matt Hilmes to win the championship for the Hawks.
“I just told our guys that who we are later today, who we are next week or next year will depend on how we react to situations like we had today…how we react when we fail,” said Drury head coach Scott Nasby. “We’re only going to be as good as how much we learn from the times when we fail.
“We didn’t do a great job of executing today. We did a great job on the mound and we got some gutsy performances but we didn’t do enough to win today. We fought to give ourselves a chance and we’ve done that all year. Hopefully, we’ll have another chance to keep playing next week.”
Crawford earned his ninth save and Quincy pitcher Graham Srapker (7-5) got the win in relief. Spraker entered the game in the third inning and retired 10 straight batters before Nic Perkins reached base on a sixth inning error. Spraker went four innings allowing no hits, no walks and he struck out five.
Engel led the Panthers at the plate going 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored.
Nolan Snyder drove in three of Quincy’s four runs as the Hawks outfielder went 3 for 3 with a walk.
The championship was Quincy’s third GLVC title in program history. Drury was playing in their fifth conference championship game in their 11-year team history.
The NCAA will announce the regional pairings for the national championship tournament later tonight. The Panthers entered the GLVC tournament ranked seventh in the Midwest Region.
