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ST. CHARLES - One inning away from a College World Series trip a year ago, the Drury baseball Panthers will get another chance to reach the NCAA-II pinnacle when they open play Thursday in the Midwest Regional against No. 2 seed Grand Valley State at the Lou Brock Complex on the campus of Lindenwood University.

Coach Scott Nasby's Panthers (31-22-1) have won 14 of their last 16 games, including a sweep of four opponents last week to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship in Westfield, Ind. Thursday's opening game of the regional between DU and GVSU will match league champions, as the Lakers (34-16) captured the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference post-season tourney title last week in Xenia, Ohio, smacking regional No. 6 seed Ashland 18-5 and 15-6 in the final two games.

Coach Jamie Detillion's 13th-ranked Lakers have won 14 of their last 17 games. They're making their 14th straight appearance in the NCAA-II regionals. Drury ended GVSU's season in the semifinal round last year in the NCAA-II Midwest Regional in Evansville, Ind., and the two teams met earlier this season in Florida, splitting a pair of 7-inning contests (Grand Valley State winning the opener 3-0, Drury bouncing back with a 10-1 victory in the nightcap).

Nasby's Panthers were 17-20-1 after dropping the first three games of a GLVC weekend series at Quincy on April 18-19 before catching fire. They entered last week's GLVC Tourney as the No. 7 seed, and knocked off No. 2 seed Indianapolis, No. 3 seed William Jewell, No. 5 seed and defending national champion Southern Indiana and then top seed Quincy, by a 7-2 score, in Sunday's title game to earn the automatic NCAA bid.

In other first-round matchups of the double-elimination Midwest Regional, top seed Quincy will face No. 6 seed Ashland at 3 p.m.  and No. 3 seed William Jewell will play No. 4 seed Truman State at 7 p.m. Play continues through Sunday in St. Charles, with the winner advancing to the Division II World Series May 22-30 in Cary, N.C.

The Panthers were one inning away from a World Series trip last year in Evansville, but saw Southern Indiana break out of a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning to earn the berth, and later go on to win the national championship. Three pitchers who were instrumental in that DU run are back to lead the Panthers on the mound this time as well - senior starters Austin Faulconer (7-5, 3.42 ERA) and Trevor Richards (4-3, 3.60 ERA) and senior closer Gage Jacobs (26 appearances, 12 saves).

The DU offense is led by senior first baseman Luke Tewes, who paces the Panthers in batting average (.396), doubles (16), homers (11) and RBIs (45). Senior outfielder Dallas Williams is hitting .381 with a team-high 51 runs scored to go with eight homers, 35 RBIs and 10 stolen bases, and senior catcher Tyler Arthur - who hit a grand slam on Saturday vs. Southern Indiana and a three-homer late vs. Quincy to seal both wins - is batting .301 with 10 homers and 38 RBIs. All three were named to the NCBWA All-Midwest Region team on Tuesday.

Grand Valley State enters the regional with one of the most balanced teams in the country. The Lakers are hitting .311 as a team, led by the .394 average of Kevin Zak, who's added 55 runs, six homers and 49 RBIs. Jamie Potts is batting .378 with 42 RBIs, one of eight Lakers hitting .300 or better in a lineup that features seniors as its first five hitters.

GVSU has a 3.85 team ERA. Matt Williams is 4-2 with a 2.97 ERA and 10 saves among his 27 appearances to pace the Lakers' staff.

DRURY-GVSU NOTES

*Drury is 5-6 in three previous NCAA-II tourney trips, going 2-2 in 2007 in Akron, Ohio, 0-2 in 2013 at Meador Park and 3-2 in 2014 in Evansville, Ind.

*The trio of Luke Tewes (11 HRs), Tyler Arthur (10 HRs) and Dallas Williams (8 HRs) have combined for more home runs (29) among any three teammates in a season in DU's nine-year baseball history. Justin Skinner (9), Tyler Goss (7) and Harrison Waters (5) had set the previous high with 21 between them in 2008.

*Tewes' 11 blasts have tied the DU single-season mark set by Matt Borgschulte in 2013. He set a new DU single-season record with 62 RBis last year, and his 45 this season give him 107 in two years, the sixth highest total in the program's history. All five Panthers ahead of Tewes were four-year players.

*With a current .301 team batting average, the Panthers are trying to hit .300 or better for the eighth straight season. The only season in DU's nine-year history where the Panthers didn't break .300 was a .287 final average in 2007, the inaugural season and part of the wood-bat GLVC competition at the time.

*The Panthers became the lowest-seeded team to win the GLVC Championship with their four triumphs last weekend in Westfield, Ind. Drury defeated the Nos. 1 (Quincy), 2 (Indianapolis), 3 (William Jewell) and 5 (Southern Indiana) seeds en route to the their third league title and second straight. Drury also won the GLVC Championship in its inaugural season of competition in 2007 as the No. 6 seed in a six-team field.

*Senior right-hander Austin Faulconer (7-5) pitched 11 scoreless innings in the GLVC tourney, including a nine-inning, complete-game shutout in a 2-0 win over William Jewell before coming in to pitch the seventh and eighth innings of the title game win over Quincy. Faulconer's 28 career victories are the most in DU history; he pulled out of a tie last month at 25 with Will Landsheft (2011-14), a 36th-round draft pick last June (Drury's first) and now pitching in the Arizona Diamondbacks' minor-league system.

*Senior right-hander Trevor Richards (4-3, 3.60 ERA) will be making his seventh post-season game appearance when he takes the ball for the Panthers vs. GVSU on Thursday. Richards will be facing the Lakers for the first time in his career.

*Grand Valley State has a 4-2 lead in the all-time series with the Panthers. The Lakers, then ranked No. 6 nationally, defeated Drury twice in the 2007 North-Central Regional in Akron, Ohio, and the Panthers knocked GVSU from last year's regional with a 5-2 victory in Evansville, Ind.

*The Panthers are 8-8 this season against the other five teams in the Midwest Regional field: 2-3 vs. Quincy, 1-1 vs. GVSU, 3-2 vs. William Jewell, 2-2 vs. Truman State, and have not played Ashland.

*St. Charles has been good to Drury in 2015 ... the DU men's and women's basketball teams went a combined 6-0 there (Family Arena) in winning the Great Lakes Valley Conference championships in those sports in early March.