ROMEOVILLE, Ill. — The Bellarmine University baseball team entered the national rankings this week and showed precisely why Saturday at Brennan Field.

The No. 25 Knights pounded out 23 hits in a 14-2 romp over Lewis in the opener before they blanked the Flyers 4-0 in the tail end in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

The 23 hits in the first game was one shy of a season high for Bellarmine (32-11, 14-4 GLVC), which has won eight of nine. The Knights blasted four homers in that contest, and sophomore right-hander Jacob Nagel followed with a shutout in the second game against Lewis (15-21-1, 7-10).

Nagel (5-2) and junior left-hander Eddie Mathis (6-1), the Game 1 starter, were both masterful for Bellarmine. Both tossed 7.0 shutout innings. Mathis allowed three hits and no walks while striking out five. Nagel struck out six while yielding three hits and walking three.

Bellarmine launched its four homers in the opener over the first three innings. Junior right fielder Zac Wiley got the long-ball barrage started with a three-run shot in the first, junior first baseman Jacob Pendred tagged a solo shot in the second, and both senior left fielder Griffin Neuer and senior second baseman Alex Ralph delivered two-run blasts in the third.

Bellarmine piled up six more runs on six hits in the sixth, none of which was a homer. Senior shortstop Drew Greenwood went 4 for 5 while Neuer, Pendred and junior third baseman Josh Finerty had three hits apiece. Ralph and senior catcher Brady Pfaadt added two hits each. Every starter for the Knights tallied at least one hit.

Neuer's homer was his 10th of the season, Pendred whacked his second and Ralph cranked his fourth. Wiley hammered his seventh and then unloaded his eighth in the tail end.

While Bellarmine may not have posted the same overwhelming production offensively in the second game, the Knights still had a solid outing at the plate. In the third, Neuer ripped a double to center, raced to third on a medium-range fly out to left and scored on a Ralph sacrifice fly.

In the fifth, with two outs, Greenwood expertly slapped an RBI single through the right side on a hit-and-run. Following Wiley's solo homer leading off the sixth, Greenwood punched an RBI single in the seventh for a 4-0 lead.

Greenwood collected two hits in the tail end to give him six on the day. Wiley added a pair of hits.

Bellarmine plays at Lewis in another doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday.

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GAME 1 BOX SCORE (HTM)
GAME 2 BOX SCORE (HTM)