FULTON, Mo. - The baseball season came to an unfortunate finish with an 8-3 loss at Westminster in the first round of the SLIAC tournament. The No. 5 seeded Panthers had swept Westminster in their season series at Robert E. Smith Field but struggled in their first visit of the season to Westminster's Saucier Field.

The Blue Jays opened the game with a 1-0 lead after the first inning, but the Panthers tied the contest at 1-1 with a sacrifice fly by Jacob Sutton in the second inning.

After three runs from the Blue Jays in the bottom of the fourth inning, GU was not able to regain the lead.

The Panthers cut the deficit to 4-3 with two runs in the top of the fifth inning after George Schneider and Landon Mokris delivered back to back RBI singles. However, the Panthers stranded two critical baserunners on first and second as the inning ended.

Westminster added insurance runs with a pair of runs in the sixth and eight innings to make their lead insurmountable.

Mokris finished his season with a 3-for-4 evening at the plate with his league-high 64th RBI of the season. He ended with a conference-high batting average of .455.

The Panthers had a challenging evening on the mound. Starting pitcher Luke Fleener only went four innings and gave up four runs on seven hits with three strikeouts.

Braden Maltbie surrendered two runs, one earned, in two innings.

Tanner Gerdes came in from centerfield to spend a scoreless inning on the mound, and Ian Wilson allowed two runs on two hits in his only inning on the bump.

The Panthers concluded their season with a record of 18-21.