OZARK, Mo. –The Drury baseball Panthers opened GLVC play with a split against UMSL, downing the Tritons in the nightcap 13-7 on thirteen hits after falling 7-4 in the opener at US Baseball Park on Saturday.  Drury swiped 18 stolen bases in the nightcap, a mark that tied for second most in NCAA-II history for a game.

In the opener, UMSL jumped out to a 4-0 lead and scored four runs on five hits.  DJ McNew drew an RBI walk in the Panther second to get DU on the board.  UMSL tacked on a pair of runs in the fourth to push their lead to 6-1. 

Brant Schaffitzel went the other way on a two RBI hit to left field that plated Stephen Randazzo and Ethan Owens in the Panther seventh to cut the lead in half.  UMSL got one of those runs back in the top of the eighth on an RBI fielders choice. Drury tacked on their final run on the contest on an RBI sacrifice fly by Clayton Engel to score Owens.

Nikko Calabro went 2-for-3 and Randazzo went 2-for-4 and scored a run in the Panthers 10 hit attack.  UMSL finished with 11 hits and were led by Andrew Hayden who went 4-for-4.

Tom Tewes (2-2) received the loss and had six strikeouts in four innings and Bobby Schallenberger (2-2) earned the win with five strikeouts in 6.2 innings of action.

In the nightcap, the Panthers took a 2-0 lead in the opening frame coming on a Calabro RBI base knock and an RBI walk from Randazzo.  Drury followed up with four runs on two hits in the bottom half of the second, highlighted by an RBI triple by Riley Herron that scored two Panthers.

Drury added a pair of runs in the fourth coming on wild pitch and an RBI groundout from Randazzo to make it 8-0.  UMSL scratched across a run in the top of the fifth but Drury countered with their ninth run in the bottom of the fifth on a throwing error that allowed Jackson Dierenfeldt to score.

UMSL tacked on two runs in the top of the sixth but could draw no closer.  The Panther bats continued to be hot with three more runs on three hits in the sixth to push it to a 12-3 lead.  UMSL tacked on two runs in the seventh.  UMSL was able to cross two more runs in the final frame but could draw no closer.

Drury finished with 13 hits with Clayton Engel going 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs.  Calabro had five stolen bases and Dierenfeldt had four steals in the Panthers 18 stolen base outing, just six shy of the NCAA record.

Hunter Becker improved to 3-1 and allowed three hits in five innings with UMSL's Nick Torres getting the loss (0-3) and allowing six runs on five hits in just 1.2 innings of action.

The Drury baseball team returns to action on Sunday, March 8^th when they will wrap up their three game series with UMSL.  First pitch is set for noon at US Baseball Park.