ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The magical run for the Davenport baseball team almost ended with another storybook chapter on Sunday. The Panthers needed to win two games against Trevecca Nazarene to advance to the NCAA Division II World Series and it nearly happened against all odds.

Davenport took the first game 6-2 as Duncan Gillett pitched the game of his life to get the win improving to 3-0 this season. The Panthers pounded out 16 hits against the Trojans as Davis Jackson took the loss falling to 4-2. The game lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes and was played in perfect conditions. The Panthers struck first in the second inning as the visiting team as Gaetano Vallone hit a double to right center and scored Carson Eby and Kamrin Markwardt for a 2-0 lead.

The Panthers added to their lead in the fifth inning as Noah Marcoux had a RBI single to right center to score Christian Petre. DU extended their lead to 4-0 in the seventh inning as Nolan Anspaugh hit his 12th home run of the season to left. Trevecca Nazarene answered in their half of the seventh with a pair of runs. Gillett gave up back-to-back walks with one out and Max Swan got a strikeout before giving up a two-run double to Braden Odom.

Cal Djuraskovic retired all four batters he faced to end the seventh and in the eighth. The Panthers added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth as Ben Mets doubled down the left field line to score Eby and Travis Harvey for the 6-2 lead. Zach Haefer closed it out in the ninth by getting the final three outs after a leadoff single by Joseph McNamee.

The second game showed how resilient the team has been in recent weeks. Trevecca Nazarene scored three times in each of the first three innings to take a 9-1 lead. Davenport's run came in the first inning as Harvey singled at first base and Petre scored.

Davenport began to chip away piece by piece with two runs in the bottom of the third as Marcoux hit his 14th home run of the season, a two-run blast to right field. Isaac Van Dyke started pitching in the top of the fourth and was great when the team needed a few innings. He was already the fourth pitcher of the game for DU and tossed four scoreless innings to allow for a comeback. 

Mets homered for the third time in the regional in the fourth for a 9-4 deficit. Harvey had a RBI single in the fifth to make it 9-5. The sixth inning provided three more runs to make it 9-8. Vallone had a sacrifice fly, Marcoux had a RBI single, and Harvey had a RBI single in that inning.

Anspaugh tied the game at 9 as DU scored eight unanswered runs in the seventh with a RBI single through the right side to plate Bryant on a head-first slide that just beat the throw from right field. Trevecca Nazarene got off the canvas in the top of the eighth against Djuraskovic. Odom had a RBI triple to right center for the winning run and a throwing error by Djuraskovic allowed the 11th run to score.

Jay Benard got the win for TNU improving to 3-0. He threw the final 2.1 innings and did allow a base runner with a strikeout and six fly ball outs. Davenport ends their season with a 33-16 overall record and made history with the program's first GLIAC regular season and tournament titles.