Cardinals drop doubleheader at West Liberty

WEST LIBRTY, W.Va. (April 20) - The Cardinals were defeated twice at West Liberty in a Mountain East Conference (MEC) doubleheader Tuesday evening.

The Wheeling University softball team (9-27, 6-18 MEC) dropped the opener 3-0, before falling 4-3 on a walk-off in the seventh inning of game two versus the Hilltoppers (23-11, 15-7 MEC).

The Cardinals got a solid outing in the circle from freshman pitcher Casey Kemp (Blanchester, Ohio/Little Miami), but were held to three his on offense in a 3-0 loss.

Kemp (2-4) allowed three runs (two earned) on eight hits with two strikeouts over six innings of work.

Freshman Cassi Roman (Chino Hills, Calif./Ayala) had two of the team's three hits.

Freshman pitcher Aubrie Lafferty (Ypsilanti, Mich./Lincoln) gave Wheeling another solid outing in game two, but a walk-off bunt allowed the Hilltoppers to escape with a 4-3 win in game two.

With the score tied in the seventh inning, West Liberty had runners on second and third with one out when the batter laid down a bunt to bring the winning run home.

Lafferty (1-6) pitched all 6.1 innings and yielded four runs on six hits with a trio of strikeouts.

Roman led the team at the dish with a two-run home run, while sophomore Gina Fogle (Toronto, Ohio/Toronto) had a pair of hits.

Wheeling will look to get back on track on Saturday, April 24 when it travels to division-leading Frostburg State (18-7, 16-4 MEC) for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.