SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—The Bellarmine softball team split a doubleheader today against Great Lakes Valley Conference foe Drury today at Thompson Field.  The Knights pulled out a 6-5 win in the opener, but a seven-run first inning propelled the Panthers to a 9-4 game two win.
 
The Knights move to 14-18 on the season with a 2-6 GLVC record.  The Panthers stay a game below .500 at 15-16 with a 3-5 league mark.
 
Bellarmine returns to action on April 1 when they travel to Springfield, Illinois to take on the Prairie Stars in another GLVC doubleheader.
 
GAME 1: BU 6, DU 5 (HTM BOX SCORE)
 
The opener was a back-and-forth affair.  After the Knights plated a run in the first on a single by Erica Knollman and a double by Paige Dabney, the Panthers equaled that effort in the home half of the inning.
 
Bellarmine then broke out to a 4-1 lead after a three-run second inning. Melissa Hammer recorded the big hit of the inning with a two-run single to right.
 
Neither team placed a runner on base until the bottom of the fourth, when the Panthers struck for four runs on five base hits, including three doubles, to take a 5-4 lead.
 
The Knights wasted a pair of hits in the top of fifth. After Kelly Ely connected for a leadoff single, the third baseman tried to score on Dabney's two-out double to right, but she was cut down at the plate as the Panthers hung onto their one-run lead.
 
Bellarmine went right back to work in the sixth with Marlee Tevis and Olivia Russell recording singles around a sacrifice by Ciara Incorvati. Katie Stamper then put the ball into play, but an error by the Drury shortstop allowed Tevis to score and put runners on second and third with just one out. Marley Edwards then delivered an RBI ground out as the Knights regained the lead 6-5.
 
The Panthers did not have the answer as Bellarmine pitcher Sabrina Fussenegger allowed just one baserunner the final two innings to pick up her sixth win of the season.
 
GAME 2:  DU 9, BU 4 (HTM BOX SCORE)
 
In game two, Drury hung a crooked number on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first, when they erupted for seven runs on six hits. The Knights committed just one critical error when a squib hit off the end of the bat spun just in front of the pitching circle and couldn't be handled for what would have been the second out of the inning.  The following batter hit into a fielder's choice that should have ended the inning, but instead the Panthers rallied for four more runs in the frame.
 
After Drury extended the lead to 9-0 with single runs in the second and third innings, the Knights tried to rally.  Bellarmine plated three runs in the fourth on RBIs by Incorvati, Russell and Stamper.
 
The Knights added another run in the fifth when Rachel Fox scored on Tevis' grounder, but that would be where Bellarmine's comeback attempt would end.