OZARK, Mo. --- A late rally fell short for the Washburn baseball team on Sunday as it dropped the series finale to Drury, 8-6 and split the four-game set.
 
Cole Gardner, Brett Nickle and Kasey Clark finished the day with two hits apiece. Gradner also registered a pair of RBI and a run in five at-bats. Nickle and Clark both went 2-for-4 at the plate.
 
Quentin McGrath was dealt the loss in his first start of the season. McGrath surrendered three runs on seven hits with one walk and a pair of strikeouts in four innings of work. Matthew Hicks, Wally Nellor and Maustin Otterstatter each made relief appearances with Hicks going for two innings while Nellor and Otterstater shared the balance with an inning each.
 
Hitless through three innings Darian Abram snapped the drought in the fourth with single to the right side but was unable to score.
 
Trailing 3-0 after five innings WU (8-3) eventually ended the scoreless streak in the sixth with runs from Gardner and Krane to make it 3-2. After a pair of errors put runners in scoring position, Josh Crosby tallied the first Ichabod RBI as his ground out to second allowed Gardner to make it 3-1. Nickle then picked out his only RBI of the afternoon as Krane crossed to make it 3-2.
 
Drury (2-2) however responded by matching Washburn and scoring twice in the bottom half of the inning to make it 5-2.
 
The Ichabods threatened in the seventh with a bases loaded opportunity but were only able to push across Bowe Behymer to make it 5-3.
 
Drury had its own bases loaded opportunity in eighth and was able to make the most of it as a two-out double cleared the Panthers' base runners to make it 8-4.
 
Washburn pulled back two runs in the ninth to make it 8-6, but the rally came up short as the final out was recorded.
 
The Ichabods will look to come back from the tough decision next week in their home opener when they host Missouri Western in a three-game set at Falley Field.