Panthers end regular season with sweep of Illinois Springfield; 21-7 GLVC record is a program-best

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Drury Panthers closed out the regular season with a doubleheader sweep of Illinois Springfield, winning game one 4-0, then taking the second game 10-2 in six innings.
 
Drury finishes the regular season 35-14, and their 21-7 mark in the Great Lakes Valley Conference is the team’s best league record in program history. The Panthers finished third in the GLVC standings. Illinois Springfield dropped to 31-18 and 15-13 in the conference.
 
Kristina Bettis pitched Drury to a game one win facing the minimum of 21 batters in the game with a two-hit shutout. Bettis, now 22-3 on the season, did not allow a walk and struck out five. She surrendered a single to start the game to a batter that was caught stealing later in the inning. Bettis gave up another single to start the fourth inning (and to the same player, Carly Chovanec), but she was erased on a line-drive double-play. It was the ninth shutout of the season for Bettis.
 
Drury grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second inning as Camryn BeDell drove in a pair of runs with a double, then Kailyne Luna added another run with a sacrifice fly to left field. The Panthers tacked on a run in the third with a two-out RBI single from Sydney Sneed.
 
Payton Long (13-6) took the loss for the Prairie Stars.
 
In game two, Drury allowed a run in the first inning but quickly grabbed the lead with two runs of their own in the first. Gracie Thomas tied the game with a RBI-single, then Abby Tiemann put the Panthers in front with a sacrifice fly.
 
Drury added two more runs in the second in a dropped fly ball in right field. The Panthers then blew open the lead in the third inning with a grand slam from Rylee Kolb. The blast to left field was her third home run of the year and gave her team an 8-2 lead.
 
The Panthers added a run in the fourth, then another run in the sixth to end the game by run rule.
 
Kolb finished the game going 3 for 4 with four RBI’s, while Luna went 2 for 2 with two runs and an RBI. Karsyn Smith (7-5) went all six innings for Drury to get the win and allowed eight hits, two runs and one earned run while walking one and striking out six.
 
Drury will be the third seed in the GLVC Tournament that starts on Thursday at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria, Illinois. The bracket and tournament schedule will be announced by the league on Monday night.
 
 
 
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