BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Senior right-hander Anthony Ethington tossed 5.0 shutout innings of relief, and senior catcher Alex Cleverly's first collegiate home run provided the visiting Bellarmine University baseball team a lead it would maintain Tuesday in a 7-3 win over Western Kentucky.

Senior third baseman Josh Finerty and junior center fielder Jack Ockerman notched two hits apiece for Bellarmine (4-10), which snapped a four-game losing streak after defeating in-state foe WKU (8-8). Eight of the nine Knights collected at least one hit.

The biggest one came from Cleverly in the seventh. With the score knotted at 3-3, the senior backstop vaulted the Knights ahead with a solo homer to left field.

Ethington (2-0) took care of the rest. A workhorse out of the bullpen, the veteran righty entered to start the fifth and proceeded to rack up 5.0 scoreless innings along with the win. Freshman right-hander Devin Ecklar preceded Ethington with a solid 4.0 innings of work.

Bellarmine's three-run ninth was initiated by exceptional execution of small ball. Junior shortstop Clayton Mehlbauer led off by working a walk, and senior second baseman Justin Rouse followed with a bunt single. Freshman first baseman Noah Nelson advanced them with a sacrifice bunt, and Mehlbauer jogged home after a balk was called on WKU.

Ockerman and Finerty padded the lead with consecutive two-out RBI singles. Finerty also had an RBI single in the third.

The three runs allowed was easily Bellarmine's lowest total over its last seven games, and perhaps not coincidentally, it came when the Knights played error-free for the first time in that span.

Bellarmine hosts North Alabama in a three-game ASUN series from Friday-Sunday.

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