OZARK, Mo. — After a dramatic go-ahead home run by Zac Wiley propelled Bellarmine University ahead of Drury in the ninth inning Friday at U.S. Baseball Park, the Knights felt the other end of the emotional spectrum in the bottom half as the Panthers posted two runs to capture a 7-6 victory in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.

Bellarmine (34-18), the East's No. 2 seed, won its opening-round game against Missouri S&T and will now face Saint Joseph's in an elimination game at 10 a.m. (ET) Saturday. Drury (35-17), the West's No. 1 seed, will face the Knights-Pumas winner at 5 p.m. (ET) Saturday.

Bellarmine entered the final inning down 5-4, but the Knights were immediately in great shape when junior shortstop Drew Greenwood led off against Alex Austin by rifling a single down the right-field line and advancing to second when the outfielder bobbled the ball. Greenwood then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore right fielder Alex Phillips.

It initially appeared that Austin wasn't going to give Wiley anything in the strike zone as he started him off with three-straight balls. However, Austin followed with a strike and then tossed the ensuing pitch in the zone. Wiley pounced on it, crushing a two-run homer to dead center that lifted Bellarmine to a 6-5 lead.

After Wiley's team-best ninth homer of the season, things started off rocky for the Knights in the bottom of the ninth. Junior right-hander Yancey Pritchett (4-1) walked leadoff man Caleb Essick, and Justin Abernathy got a fortuitous bounce on a sacrifice-bunt attempt and turned it into a single.

Senior right-hander Will Birch entered and Clayton Engel followed with a sacrifice bunt. After an intentional walk loaded the bases, Wiley relieved Birch to face Nic Perkins. Drury's catcher worked a favorable count and then laced a single up the middle that scored the tying and winning runs.

Bellarmine churned out 16 hits, but the Knights grounded into double plays in the fifth, seventh and eighth innings to extinguish scoring threats. They had the bases loaded in the first instance and two runners on in the latter two.

Junior left-hander Hunter Spencer tossed 6.1 innings for Bellarmine and suffered one bad frame. Drury scored all five of its runs against him with two outs in the fourth, when Spencer walked three and allowed four hits. The southpaw posted zeroes in the other innings and finished with three strikeouts.

Sophomore third baseman Josh Finerty and junior left fielder Griffin Neuer both had RBI singles in the third inning to stake Bellarmine to a 2-0 lead. Freshman center fielder Bobby Brokamp made it 3-0 with an RBI single in the fourth. After Drury's five-run rally, senior catcher Christopher Allen cut it to 5-4 in the eighth with a drive off the wall that scored junior second baseman Alex Ralph, who had singled.

Wiley and Allen were both 3 for 4, while Neuer was 3 for 5. Greenwood and Finerty contributed two hits each.

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