Drury 8, Parkside 7
The Parkside baseball team battled for twelve innings in hopes of getting their first win of the 2020 season, but they fell just short. The team was tied at 7 with Drury at the end of the ninth inning, but fell 8-7 on a twelfth inning RBI double from the home team.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Rangers jumped out in front at the outset of the game with a four-hot, three-run first inning. The scoring came with two outs when junior Dominic Esposito drove home graduate student Casey Oliver. After a walk and a Drury error, sophomore Noah Tyrrell drove in two more with a single to give the Rangers the 3-0 lead. The Panthers got one back in the second inning with a solo home run, but graduate student Austin Emanuel did the same in the top of the third and pushed the Parkside lead back up to three.
 
Drury responded and grabbed a 5-4 lead after scoring two runs in the third inning, and two more in the fifth off of Parkside starter Hunter Weddel. It looked like the Rangers might fall to that final score until a big top of the eighth inning. The frame started with three singles in four batters to load the bases with one out. From there, the Green & White were able to take a 7-5 lead thanks to an HBP, error, and passed ball.
 
Parkside took that 7-5 lead into the bottom half of the ninth, and retired the first two batters, but weren't able to close the door when the Panthers drew two walks that both scored on an RBI double from Drury's Clayton Engel. The 7-7 score stayed until the twelfth when Drury used another two-out RBI double to take the game and sweep the three game series.
 
A LOOK AT THE BOX SCORE
The two teams each had 11 hits on the day, while Parkside only had one error to Drury's two. Junior Garrett LaBreche had another strong game for the Rangers, going 3-for-6 with a run scored. Oliver (2-for-5) and Esposito (2-for-6) also had multiple hits in the game. With two RBI's, freshman Jared Heinzen was the lone Ranger with multiple RBI's on the day.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Next weekend the Rangers will head to Fayette, Iowa to start a four-game series against Upper Iowa on March 6. Then, the team will have some midweek action when they head to Hillsdale for a doubleheader on Wednesday, March 11 at Noon & 2:30 p.m.