QUINCY, Ill. — The visiting Bellarmine University baseball team opened Great Lakes Valley Conference play with authority Saturday, rolling to a doubleheader sweep of Quincy by scores of 9-5 and 12-2.

Bellarmine (9-4, 2-0 GLVC) and Quincy (8-5, 0-2) have combined to win the last three GLVC Tournament titles, as the Knights are the reigning champions while the Hawks won the two prior to that.

Game 1: Bellarmine 9, Quincy 5 (HTM Box Score)
Brandon Pfaadt (3-1) dominated the vast majority of the opener. The junior right-hander allowed a single earned run — two total — on five hits with seven strikeouts against no walks over 6.0 innings.

Bellarmine built a 9-0 lead before Quincy scored. Pfaadt shut out the Hawks over the first five innings before they collected three of their five hits against him in a two-run sixth. One of those runs came across after a fielding error. Pfaadt won his third straight start and hasn't yielded more than two runs in any of his five outings.

Bellarmine scored all of its runs through five innings, including four in the first. Senior Chris Gambert, making a rare start as an outfielder, and junior right fielder Jacob Mulcahy recorded back-to-back singles to start things off.

Gambert scored Bellarmine's first run after a wild pitch, and the Knights scored two more on a dropped throw at first base. Freshman first baseman Noah Nelson followed with an RBI double to stake Bellarmine to a 4-0 lead.

Junior second baseman Justin Rouse and Gambert blasted back-to-back homers in the second, and Bellarmine scored two more runs on a dropped fly ball in the third. Gambert's RBI single in the fifth made it 9-0.

Senior right-hander Anthony Ethington registered his second save after throwing the final 3.0 innings. The Hawks scored all five of their runs after the fifth and had the tying run on deck in the ninth, but Ethington turned back the comeback bid.

Game 2: Bellarmine 12, Quincy 2 (HTM Box Score)
Senior left-hander Shane Barringer (2-1) fired a complete game, racking up 10 strikeouts while allowing eight hits and two earned runs over 7.0 innings pitched.

Scoring early became a theme for Bellarmine as senior third baseman Josh Finerty walloped a two-run homer in the first. The Knights added two more runs in the second when Mulcahy scalded a two-run double to right center.

Junior left fielder Matt Higgins roped a two-run double and then scored on a wild pitch as Bellarmine's lead swelled to 7-1 in the fourth. Junior shortstop Clayton Mehlbauer had an RBI single and freshman second baseman Dylan Byerly a sacrifice fly as the Knights tacked on three more runs in the sixth.

Bellarmine amassed 12 hits and also tallied nine walks, with Gambert drawing three. Finerty was 4 for 5 with two doubles in addition to his homer. Higgins and Rouse added two hits each.

The series finale will be a single game starting at 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday.

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