EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - The baseball team opened their season on Friday at SIU Edwardsville and dropped a pair of games, losing 12-1 in the opener and 14-2 in the second game.

In game one, Aaron Klar, Blake Duncan, Parker Panich, and Noah Casali recorded hits for Greenville. Thomas Dowell knocked in Greenville's lone run in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI groundout.

Jaxen Gibson drew the opening game start and pitched five innings, allowing four runs, two earned, on nine hits. He fanned five and walked three.

Chad Plath relieved Gibson with two and one-third innings, but he permitted seven runs, three earned, while whiffing four.

Luke Rushik closed the game on the mound with two-thirds of an inning, giving up one unearned run on two hits.

In the second game, Greenville spotted IWU four runs in the top of the first, but the Panthers managed to score twice in the bottom of the first when Dustin Sutton knocked in Klar with an RBI double and Landon Mokris provided an RBI single to make the score 4-2.

The Titans increased their lead with three runs in the second inning, four runs in the sixth, and three runs in the seventh.

Sutton, Duncan, Mokris, Panich, and River Baker combined to give Greenville their five hits.

Luke Fleener opened the game on the mound and permitted seven runs in the first two innings before settling down and delivering two scoreless innings. Craig Oertel allowed three runs in one inning, and Parker Lutz gave up four runs in one and two-thirds innings.

The Panthers (0-2) will play Illinois Wesleyan again on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in O'Fallon, Ill., at the O'Fallon Sports Park.