Box Score WESTFIELD, Ind. — The Bellarmine University baseball team has been in survival mode in recent weeks, and the Knights will need to call upon those instincts once again.

Sixth-seeded Bellarmine started off the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament on Thursday with a 15-1 loss to No. 3 seed William Jewell at Grand Park.

The Knights (28-23) will now play in an elimination game against the loser of the Indianapolis-Drury contest at 6 (ET) tonight. William Jewell (36-15) meets the winner on Friday.

Things went awry early for Bellarmine, and the Knights never recovered. BU committed six errors and William Jewell scored three runs in the second and four in the third. The miscues by the Knights, the early scoring by the Cardinals and a complete-game effort by Austin Kretchmar led to BU fighting to stay alive on the opening day of the GLVC Tourney.

Kretchmar (9-2) allowed six hits and one earned run with three strikeouts in 9.0 innings. Junior third baseman Cole Metcalfe followed base hits by freshman designated hitter Griffin Neuer and junior left fielder Jes Staples with an RBI single in the third, but the Knights wouldn't score again. A line out by sophomore first baseman Nick Wright to Kretchmar ended what had the potential to be a bigger third inning for BU.

Bellarmine totaled six hits while William Jewell racked up 18. The Knights didn't help their case by allowing five unearned runs due to their six miscues in the field.
Staples, Metcalfe, Neuer, freshman shortstop Drew Greenwood, freshman catcher Brady Pfaadt and senior right fielder Phillip Leopold had one hit apiece for Bellarmine. Pfaadt's was a double.

Shortstop Waheed Coleman paced William Jewell with a 4-for-5 outing. Seven different Cardinals had multiple hits as they dealt Bellarmine junior starter Austin Warner (6-4) his first loss since March 22.

BOX SCORE