O'FALLON, Ill. - The Drury Baseball Panthers opened a GLVC road series with a sweep at McKendree, taking games by scores of 8-5 and 5-4 at O'Fallon Sports Park on Friday.

Drury improved to 28-21 overall and 20-12 in the GLVC and McKendree fell to 11-37 overall and 8-24 in the league.

In the opener, the Bearcats scored in the opening frame before the Panthers and Bearcats traded runs in the third.  Clayton Engel evened panthers up in top half with an RBI fielders choice and McKendree swiped the lead back in the bottom half.  McKendree cushioned their lead in the fifth when they scored three runs on four hits for a 5-1 lead.

In the Drury seventh, Brandt Ollinger would spark the Panthers comeback when he went yard and Jackson Dierenfeldt added an RBI single to cut the McKendree lead to 5-3. Collin Fraley then pulled Drury to within a run in the eighth with an RBI base knock.

Needing a run to even the score in the ninth, Brant Schaffitzel tied it up with an RBI fielders choice.  A clutch and timely RBI triple down the right field line by Engel plated two Panthers.  Ollinger capped off the four run five hit inning with an RBI single for the 8-5 DU win.

Ollinger and Fraley had three hits apiece in the Panthers 14 hit outing.  Alex Austin earned the win in relief action and threw three scoreless innings with 5 Ks. 

In the nightcap, McKendree scored first again with a run in the fourth, but Drury quickly answered in the fifth when Schaffitzel scored Cole Dunham on a sacrifice fly.  Both teams traded runs again in the sixth inning with Dierenfeldt getting an RBI single for the Panthers second run.

After a scoreless frame in the seventh, Drury put a three spot on the board in the eighth to take a 5-2 lead.  An RBI walk, a wild pitch, and a RBI ground out accounted for Panther runs.

McKendree pushed the game to the wire with an RBI double and a wild pitch that allowed a run to score, but Austin held the Panther lead and moved his save total to four.  Kaden Helsel (7-5) earned the win and threw 2.1 innings.

Ollinger had two of the Panthers nine hits and finished 2-for-4 with a run. 

Drury will wrap up there three game series with McKendree tomorrow at noon.