LYNCHBURG, Va. — The Bellarmine University baseball team was down to its last strike when senior second baseman Justin Rouse smashed a dramatic go-ahead three-run homer.

Unfortunately for the Knights, Liberty was down to its last out when Logan Mathieu countered in the clutch.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth Sunday at Liberty Baseball Stadium, Mathieu launched a walk-off two-run homer off the scoreboard in left center as the Flames dealt the Knights their most heartbreaking loss of the season with a 9-8 win in ASUN action.

It was the second home run of the game for Mathieu, who cranked a three-run dinger in the third to stake Liberty (30-11, 14-1 ASUN) to a 5-0 lead over Bellarmine (12-27, 7-14). After Mathieu's walk-off, the Knights made an appeal at first in hopes that Mathieu may have missed the bag while rounding it for second. However, the play was upheld after a video review — a replay on the live stream did clearly show that Mathieu touched the base.

Mathieu's second long ball spoiled a thrilling comeback by Bellarmine, which scored four runs in the sixth to rally within 5-4 and kept coming in the ninth trailing 7-4. With one out, junior left fielder Matt Higgins doubled off the wall. Liberty recorded a second out before making a pitching change.

Landon Riley, who entered the game with a 0.00 ERA, came on for Mason Fluharty, but junior shortstop Clayton Mehlbauer greeted him with an RBI single. Junior right fielder Jacob Mulcahy followed with a single before Riley worked a 1-2 count on Rouse. Down to the final strike, Rouse was unfazed and crushed the hanging breaking ball that followed, easily sending it over the left-center wall for his third homer of the season and an 8-7 lead.

Including the walk-off, Liberty homered four times and eight of its nine runs came off the long balls. The exception was the first run, which came via a bases-loaded walk. The Flames swept the three-game series, winning the last two contests by one run each time.

Bellarmine had started its comeback bid with a four-run sixth. Rouse pushed in the first run when he drew a bases-loaded walk. The Knights scored again on a Liberty error, and senior third baseman Josh Finerty plated two more with a single.

On top of his RBI single in the ninth, Mehlbauer cranked a pair of doubles. Finerty added a pair of hits, and Rouse racked up four RBIs.

Bellarmine plays at 7 p.m. (ET) Tuesday at Austin Peay.

For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights) and Facebook (BUKnights).