OZARK - Missouri-St. Louis scored three times in the top of the first and went on to claim a 6-3 victory over Drury in the opener of the four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series between the teams Friday evening at U.S. Ballpark.

The Tritons moved to 27-20 overall and 9-16 in the GLVC with the game one win, while Drury fell to 15-32 and 6-19. The Panthers and Tritons will play a noon doubleheader Saturday at Meador Park before closing the season on Sunday with a noon single game back at USBP for Senior Day festivities (11:40 a.m. ceremony start).

Making the last start of his career, DU senior lefty Luke Burnidge settled down after the first inning, when UMSL tallied three times on three hits. 

Drury answered with a pair of runs in the third on an RBI double from Justin Abernathy and a run-scoring single by Connor Wilson to cut it to 3-2.

The teams traded single runs in the fifth (UMSL) and seventh (Drury), the latter on a Ryan Wadkins RBI single to make it 4-3, but the Tritons snuffed out any Panthers rally with tallies in the eighth and ninth for the final 6-3 count.

Burnidge (2-8) allowed eight hits and five runs in his seven innings of work, striking out three and walking three.

UMSL's Kurt McGwire (8-2) surrendered seven hits and three runs over seven innings for the win, while Austin Simokaitis picked up his 15th save with a spotless ninth.

Ryan Kayhill had two of Drury's seven hits as the Panthers were out-hit 10-7.

Tanner Hudson had three hits and three RBIs to pace the Tritons' attack.