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EAST PEORIA, Ill. – Drury pitcher Kristina Bettis fired a one-hit shutout as the Panthers advanced to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament semifinals with a 7-0 win over Illinois Springfield on Saturday at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Illinois.
Drury, the number three seed in the tournament, improved to 36-14 and ended sixth-seeded Illinois Springfield’s season at 31-19.
Bettis improved to 23-3 as she fired a complete game and her 10th shutout of the season. The junior from Swansea, Illinois, who was named the league’s Pitcher of the Year earlier this week, struck out 11 with no walks while allowing only an infield single and a hit batsman.
“We had just faced them (to end the regular season), so we had a good game plan,” said Drury head coach Jerry Breaux. “Bettis and (catcher) Gracie Thomas do a great job studying the hitters and I thought we had a better game plan than we had before. Our corner infielders were ready for their speed and we had an awesome game tonight.”
Drury scored single runs in the second, third and fourth innings. The Panthers took a 1-0 lead on an RBI-double from Kailyne Luna, then went up 2-0 on Sydney Sneed’s ground ball in the third that scored Megan Mullaney. Lauren Beier gave Drury a 3-0 advantage in the fourth with a single.
DU then put up four runs in the fourth to put the game out of reach.
“We pecked away at the offensively,” said Breaux. “We left a lot of people on base early, but we kept battling. I was hoping we’d top seven runs, but we’ll take the win.”
Beier ended the game going 2 for 4 with three RBIs and Camryn BeDell was 2 for 2 with an RBI and a run scored.
The 36 wins by the Panthers match a program record. Drury won 36 games in 2019 and in 2012.
The tournament changed to a single-elimination format after the first two days of the event were rained out. Drury will play Indianapolis on Sunday at 12:30 pm in the semifinals. The Greyhounds are ranked third in NCAA-II and are the second seed in the tournament. UIndy advanced to the semifinals with a 4-0 win over Rockhurst on Saturday.
The other semifinal game will pit top-seeded and 15th ranked Southern Indiana against fourth-seeded Lindenwood at 10 am.
The winner of both semifinal games will play for the GLVC Championship at 3 pm on Sunday.
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