Box Score EVANSVILLE, Ind.—The Bellarmine University baseball team defeated Drury 2-1 this afternoon at  Bosse Field to capture the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship.  The title is Bellarmine's third overall but their first since 1989.

Today's championship game was a pitching battle that Bellarmine won with superior fielding.  All three runs scored in the game were unearned as Bellarmine's runs came by way of a passed ball and throwing error, and Drury's lone run came after the batter reached on catcher's interference.   The Panthers committed five errors on the day, while the Knights committed just one miscue in addition to the catcher's interference.

Bellarmine, the No. 6 seed in the tournament and visitors on the scoreboard today, struck first after Cody Scheler led off the second inning with a double and came around to score when Drury third baseman Alex Larkin made a throwing error on Nick Hladek's sacrifice bunt. 

The following inning, the Knights again took advantage of poor fielding by the Panthers.  Michael Morrissette led off with a single, then advanced to second when Jes Staples reached on an error charged to the Drury second baseman.  Austin Crutcher moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt, and Morrissette scampered home with the eventual winning run on a passed ball.

Drury's lone run came in the bottom of the third when Larkin was awarded first base due to catcher's interference.  After a sacrifice bunt, Drury's Nick Thimesch delivered a double to drive in Larkin and pick up the game's only RBI.

The scoreboard showed only “goose eggs” for the remainder of the game with Bellarmine getting clutch performances by starting pitcher Phil Forbis and reliever Curtis McCombs, both of whom worked four innings.  Knights' closer Justin Strohmeier came on in the ninth, and although he allowed two base runners, picked up his 10^th save of the season and his third of the GLVC tournament.

Kevin Sweeney tossed a complete game for the top-seeded Panthers, but was the hard-luck loser due to the two unearned runs. 

Bellarmine improves to 29-21 on the season while Drury slips to 39-15.  The Knights pick up the GLVC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the tourney field to be announced tonight at 10 p.m.

BOX SCORE (HTML)


HITTING:

• Morrissette, BU's leadoff batter, proved to be quite the “table-setter” by hitting .438 (7-for-16). 
• Scheler, meanwhile, did his job as designated hitter by going six of 14 from the plate for a .429 average.
• Second baseman Graham Spencer led the Knights with five RBIs during the tournament while hitting an even .400 (6 of 15). 
• Crutcher led the Knights with a .750 slugging percentage while hitting .375.  The Bellarmine center fielder hit for cycle during the tournament (accomplishing the feat in BU's first two games) and drove four runs for the Knights.

PITCHING:

• Strohmeier finished all four games and did not surrender a run. 
• Evan McNair came out of the bullpen three times and gave up no runs in two and two-thirds innings of work. 
• Ryan Dixon made two appearances in relief and was perfect in two innings of work, striking out four of the six batters he faced.
• As a whole, Bellarmine posted a 2.00 earned run average during the tournament as opponents hit just .200 against the Knights.