KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Matt Higgins and Clayton Mehlbauer both homered, and the Bellarmine University baseball team amassed 12 hits before falling 11-5 to top-ranked Tennessee on Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The dozen hits for Bellarmine (11-36) were only shy of the season high allowed by Tennessee (43-6), which entered the contest yielding a nation's-best 5.91 hits per game. The Vols are also the national leader in team ERA, carrying a 2.20 mark into the matchup, but all five runs the Knights scored were earned.

Higgins set the tone for the impressive offensive showing by drilling the second pitch of the game off the scoreboard in right field. The senior left fielder became the first player in program history to reach 20 home runs in a season. His program-record career tally rose to 43.

Mehlbauer launched his fifth home run of the season. With Bellarmine trailing 5-2, the senior shortstop blistered a two-run shot to left in the sixth that sliced the deficit to one.

Facing an upset bid, Tennessee answered with four runs in the bottom half of the sixth, as Drew Gilbert hit a three-run homer and Trey Lipscomb went back-to-back with a solo shot. The Vols, who lead the country in homers, capped the scoring on a two-run blast by Blake Burke in the eighth.

Higgins doubled and scored on an RBI single by senior right fielder Jacob Mulcahy in the seventh. Higgins, Mulcahy, Mehlbauer and sophomore catcher Ashton Smith tallied two hits each.

Junior righthander Ryan Johnson struck out the side in the seventh for Bellarmine. Johnson and freshman righthander Arren Hash fanned three batters apiece.

Bellarmine will play an ASUN series Friday-Sunday at North Alabama. First pitch Friday is set for 6 p.m. (ET).

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