Two-time defending Great Lakes Valley Conference champion Drury will officially step on the diamond for the first time this season on Friday, when the baseball Panthers open their campaign at St. Edward's in Austin, Texas.

Coach Scott Nasby's fourth season as head coach at DU will feature a mix of veterans and newcomers expected to contribute immediately for a Panthers team coming off a 33-24-1 campaign that netted not only another GLVC title, but a third straight NCAA tournament appearance. 

The Panthers will face a stiff test right off the bat in St. Edward's, a 40-win program from a year ago that won the Heartland Conference title and also advanced to the NCAA-II tournament.

Sterling Sharp, a junior right-hander and transfer from NCAA Division I Eastern Michigan, will draw the opening day assignment on the mound for the Panthers, who will face St. Edward's in a single nine-inning game at 1 p.m. Friday, two sevens at noon on Saturday and a single nine at noon on Sunday to close the four-game set. All of the games are scheduled to be streamed at this link.

Nasby and assistant coaches Logan Hughes and Eric Peterson will hope to get the Panthers out of the gates more quickly this season, though they will be taking on a St. Edward's team with nine games under its belt (and a 6-3 record) already before they've thrown a pitch.

Last year's DU squad was sitting at 17-20-1 in mid-April after a third-game loss to Quincy in a road GLVC series when a tremendous surge started, one that saw the Panthers go 15-2 over their next 17 games and claim another league title - again, against Quincy in the final - in Westfield, Ind.

Most of the offensive stalwarts from that squad - first baseman Luke Tewes, outfielder Dallas Williams and catcher Tyler Arthur, to name three - are gone via graduation. Tewes left as the program's all-time leader in career slugging percentage (.610) and on-base percentage (.448) as well as setting single-season marks last year with his 11 home runs (tying Matt Borgschulte's mark in 2013) and in 2014 with his 62 RBIs, while Williams hit .366 with 16 stolen bases and Arthur became the team's "Mr. Clutch" bat in the post-season.

Gone, too, are their 1-2 rotation punch at the top in Trevor Richards and Austin Faulconer, who rank No. 1 (Faulconer, 28) and tied for No. 2 (Richards, 24) on the program's career victories list, as well as one of the program's best closers in history (Gage Jacobs, now a DU volunteer assistant coach after tying single-season saves mark with 13 last spring).

Translated: Some veterans are going to have to step their game up and some newcomers are going to have to hit the ground running.

Familiar faces returning include first baseman/designated hitter Connor Wilson (.236, 20 RBIs) and third baseman Spencer Wilmes (.290, 29 RBIs), shortstop John Goodrich (.276, 20 RBIs), outfielder Ryan Wadkins (.294, 18 stolen bases) and pitcher/infielder Ryan Colombo (5-2, 4.53 ERA and .271, 20 RBIs).

Christian Magno (.243, 9 RBIs), Dylan Bradshaw, Marcus Enloe ( and Michael Pfeifer (.292, 6 RBIs) are expected to see increased roles as well. Freshman Connor Pomering will step into the big shoes left behind the plate by Arthur, who was rock solid at the position the past two seasons.

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In addition to Sharp and Colombo, the pitching staff will lean heavily on senior lefty Luke Burnidge (4-3, 4.75 ERA), sophomore Austin Simms (4-2, 5.82 ERA, sophomore newcomer and Saint Louis University transfer Trey Faulconer and at the back end of the bullpen, sophomore Nick Costantino (4-2, 2.87 ERA).

The Panthers are picked to finish second behind Quincy in the GLVC West preseason poll of league coaches. 

Drury will play its first home series of the season March 4-6 against Arkansas-Fort Smith at Meador Park.