LYNCHBURG, Va. —The Bellarmine University baseball team fell 5-2 to Liberty in the opening game of the best-of-three ASUN Championship quarterfinal series Friday at Liberty Baseball Stadium.

Led by three hits apiece from senior third baseman Josh Finerty and freshman first baseman Davis Crane, North four-seed Bellarmine (13-35) had its chances against the North one-seed Flames (36-12). The Knights loaded the bases in the ninth before Fraser Ellard earned his seventh save after a game-ending line out to center.

Bellarmine will face an elimination game as the Knights will meet the Flames again at 4 p.m. (ET) Saturday in hopes of evening the series.

Finerty crushed a solo homer off the scoreboard in the seventh as his sixth long ball of the season cut the deficit to 4-2. The first-team ASUN All-Conference selection added a double in going 3-for-5, an output matched by ASUN All-Freshmen honoree Crane. Junior shortstop Clayton Mehlbauer contributed a pair of hits, including an RBI single in the first that followed Finerty's leadoff double.

Bellarmine got the leadoff man on base in five separate innings, but the Knights stranded 12 runners on base. Five of those came in the last two frames; in addition to leaving the bases loaded in the ninth, Bellarmine failed to score in the eighth despite back-to-back singles by Crane and junior right fielder Jacob Mulcahy to start the stanza.

Liberty's Trevor Delaite, the ASUN Pitcher of the Year, improved to 10-1 after allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out eight in 7.0 innings. Senior right-hander Jacob Nagel also had an effective start for Bellarmine, yielding three earned runs in 5.2 innings, and freshman right-hander Devin Ecklar tossed 1.2 scoreless innings of relief.

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