CHICAGO, Ill. - The journey towards a championship can be a long and winding road. The Davenport baseball team went from a program last year that went 20-34 overall and finished fourth in the GLIAC (13-17), into the 2025 GLIAC regular season champions with a record of 35-12 overall and 19-2 in the GLIAC. The remarkable turnaround has led to the third ring in the last five seasons for the Panthers, who also won the title in 2021 and 2022.
The Panthers claimed the outright crown with a 7-2 win on Friday at Roosevelt. The game was very close with DU leading 2-1 after seven innings. The late-inning ability to score has been a staple all season and it happened again with two runs in the eighth and three runs in the ninth to pull away.
Sam Clay got the team on the board in the fifth inning as they trailed 1-0. He had a RBI single in the infield which allowed
Logan Todd to score.
Michael Tchavdarov gave DU their first lead in the sixth inning with a solo home run to right, it was his fifth of the season. The Lakers would leave two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh as
Zach Hopman was replaced by
Mason Hill with two outs. Hill got a flyout to end the threat.
In the eighth, Tchavdarov singled with one out and
Justin Johnson was hit by a pitch.
Xander Reisbig delivered a RBI double to score Tchavdarov for the 3-1 lead.
Cody Hultink then had a sacrifice fly to center which scored Johnson for the 4-1 advantage. Roosevelt scored once in the bottom of the eighth against Hill, but he again stranded two runners on base.
The Panthers widened their lead with those three runs in the ninth. Todd singled with one out and then DU scored their runs with two outs.
Coltrane Rubner singled and Todd advanced to second. Both stole a base and Tchavdarov had a RBI single to score Todd. Johnson followed with a RBI single to score Rubner. Tchavdarov and Johnson then pulled off a double steal as Tchavdarov scored for the 7-2 lead.
Hopman lasted 6.2 innings and got his first win of the season. He allowed just one run on three hits with three walks and a strikeout. Hill picked up his third save of the season by tossing the final 2.1 innings. He allowed one run on two hits with two walks and no strikeouts. Kaden Foran went eight innings for the Lakers and took the loss. He allowed three earned runs on eight hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
