GREENVILLE, Ill. - The baseball team concluded the regular season with a split against Westminster in a doubleheader that was postponed from Saturday. In Monday's opening game, Westminster was a 3-2 winner over Greenville, and the Panthers came back for a 9-7 win in the night cap. The win in the final game allowed Greenville to capture the No. 5 seed in the upcoming SLIAC tournament.
The game one matchup between the teams saw Westminster score single runs in the second and third innings for a 2-0 lead. Greenville tied the score at 2-all in the bottom of the fourth when Rhett Pennington and Aaron Klar supplied RBI singles. The Panthers had runners on first and second with one out when Drew Frey lined into a double play to third base to end the inning.
The Blue Jays posted the winning run in the top of the sixth on a solo home run.
The Panthers threatened in the bottom of the sixth with a runner on second base, but Dustin Sutton was caught stealing third base to end the inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Greenville mounted a two-out rally with an infield single by Frey and an error by the shortstop that put Mark Islas on first and Frey on second base. However, Landon Mokris flied out to right center to conclude the game.
Luke Fleener started on the mound and went five innings, allowing all three runs. Braden Maltbie finished the game with two scoreless innings.
In game two, the Panthers were led by three hits and three runs from Frey in their victory.
The Panthers allowed the Blue Jays to take the early 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth, but GU came back with four runs in the bottom of the inning.
Mokris had an RBI double in the first, and Logan Garrick posted an RBI single.
Tanner Gerdes delivered a sacrifice fly to center field, and the Panthers scored their fourth run with a sacrifice bunt from George Schneider.
In the fifth inning, Greenville went ahead 5-1 with Garrick's second RBI single of the game.
The Panthers scored twice in the sixth to extend the lead to 7-1 with an RBI triple by Frey, and Frey eventually crossed the plate on a passed ball.
The Blue Jays broke through against GU reliever Hunter Cullum for three runs in the top of the seventh, but GU got two of the runs right back with an RBI double by Pennington that scored two runs.
Westminster tacked on one in the eighth and two in the ninth before Craig Oertel recorded the final outs.
Ian Wilson gained his second win of the year on the mound, working five innings and giving up an unearned run on three hits with five strikeouts.
Cullum permitted three runs, one earned, in one and one-third innings, and Chad Plath gave up one run in one and two-thirds innings.
Oertel worked the ninth inning, allowing two runs on three hits with three strikeouts.
Joining Frey with multi-hit efforts were Mokris, Garrick, Tanner Gerdes, and Sutton all with two hits.
The Panthers (9-28, 9-19 SLIAC) will begin the SLIAC tournament on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against Westminster at Car Shield Field in O'Fallon, Mo.
