Bellarmine and Saint Joseph's defeated NKU at the GLVC Tournament Friday.
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ST. LOUIS – Any thoughts of three-peating as Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament champions ended Friday for Northern Kentucky University after losses to Bellarmine and Saint Joseph's.
NKU, the two-time GLVC Tournament champion and ranked 17th nationally in the NCAA Division II poll, began the day by dropping a 7-4 decision to Bellarmine. The Norse then faced Saint Joseph's in an elimination game and managed just four hits during a 6-4 loss to the Pumas.
NKU is now 41-15 and will wait to find out its seed in the upcoming NCAA Division II Tournament. The Norse are currently No. 3 in the Midwest Region poll.
Bellarmine wasted no time in jumping on NKU in the opener as Patrick Brady hit a three-run homer off
Ryan Schmidt in the bottom of the first inning to give the Knights a 3-0 lead.
With Bellarmine holding a 4-1 lead in the seventh inning, NKU's
Jake Morris hammered a solo home run over the wall in right field to make it a 4-2 game. In the eighth inning, the Norse loaded the bases with one out and
Joe Mack was sent in to pinch hit.
Saint Joseph's reliever Cory Thomas missed the strike zone with his first two pitches to Mack. With the count 2-0, Mack popped up a Thomas fastball to short left field and all runners had to hold. Morris then ended the threat by hitting a grounder to shortstop.
Bellarmine scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to extend the lead to 7-2.
Bryan Rose homered to right field with a runner aboard in the ninth to cut the Bellarmine advantage to 7-4, and Pat Muth followed with a single. Thomas, though, battled back and induced
Evan McDole to hit into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
In the elimination game, Saint Joseph's built an early 4-0 lead and held on to defeat NKU despite committing five errors. Puma starting pitcher Steve Styck scattered four hits and allowed just two earned runs in 7 2/3 innings to get the win.
NKU cut the Saint Joseph's lead to 6-4 in the eighth inning and had the bases loaded with two outs. Eric Panick relieved Styck and induced Morris to pop up to first base in foul ground on a 3-2 pitch to stop the NKU threat.
Panick finished off the ninth inning and picked up the save for Saint Joseph's, which improved to 32-21. NKU had defeated Saint Joseph's in the first round of the GLVC Tournament on Thursday by a 6-0 score.
