BRISTOL, Tenn.—The Bellarmine Knights softball team opened its 2017 season with a doubleheader sweep of the King University Tornadoes on Saturday afternoon.  The Knights scored eight runs in the final two innings to pull out an 11-4 victory in the opener, and followed up with 7-4 victory in game two.
 
Megan Bretz and Erica Knollman paced the Knights offensively as they combined to go 9-for-15 at the plate while Rachel Fox drove in four runs on the day. Freshmen Alexis Sumner and Sabrina Fussenegger picked up the wins in the circle for Bellarmine, with Fussenegger also earning a save in game two.
 
The Knights continue their road trip tomorrow with a twin bill in Mars Hill, North Carolina against the Lions of Mars Hill College.
 
GAME 1: BU 11, KU 4  (HTM BOX SCORE)
 
Bellarmine started the 2017 season off by taking a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Fox drew a leadoff walk and Melissa Hammer followed with a single and both came around to score on King errors.
 
The Tornadoes got back one of those runs after leading off the bottom of the first with a triple and a single.
 
The Knights added another run in the fourth when Bretz doubled home Knollman, who had singled.
 
King clawed back to tie it with single runs in the fourth and fifth, before the Knights blew the game open with four run on five hits in the top of the sixth. Four Bellarmine singles led to the first two runs, and Fox delivered the big blow of the inning with a 2-run triple.
 
The Tornadoes cut the Bellarmine lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the sixth on a solo homer, but the Knights put the game away with a 4-run seventh inning with Fox again delivering a 2-RBI hit.
 
Fussenegger, who came on in relief of Sumner, worked the final three innings to pick up first win of her career.
 
GAME 2:  BU 7, KU 4 (HTM BOX SCORE)
 
The Knights again jumped out to an early lead, taking advantage of a pair of Tornado errors to plate an unearned run in the top of the first.
 
King banged out four hits in the bottom of the second, but Bellarmine kept the damage to just one run, and the score remained 1-1 until the top of the fourth. Bellarmine got hits from Kelly Ely, Knollman and Katie Stamper and King helped the BU cause with a pair of errors as the Knights scored three times to take a 4-1 lead.
 
After holding King scoreless in the home half of the fourth, the Knights added three more runs in the top of the fifth with Bretz, Ely and Olivia Russell all smacking doubles in the inning to account for the scoring.
 
King responded with three runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Fussenegger again relieved Sumner and pitched two and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief to pick up the save as neither team scored the rest of the way.