Hilltoppers, Falcons Split on Sunday
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University baseball team split a Mountain East Conference North Division doubleheader with Notre Dame (Ohio) Sunday afternoon at Kovalick Field.
Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers (11-12, 9-7) rallied to pull out a 4-3 win in the opener before the Falcons (10-14, 7-9) outslugged the Black and Gold, 13-11, in the finale.
West Liberty battled back from a 3-0 deficit to win the first game. Ty Helmke put the hosts on the board with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth and the Hilltoppers added three more runs in the sixth to take the lead for good.
Following a Jarret Delbrugge sacrifice fly, Colton Coss worked a bases-loaded walk to force in the tying run and Chad Matthus followed with a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield for what proved to be the game-winner.
Logan Grimm went the distance on the mound, striking out 6 while issuing just one walk. Only two of Notre Dame's runs were earned. Coss accounted for two of West Liberty's six hits with a pair of singles.
The second game was a free-for-all from the start as the Falcons exploded for eight runs in the top of the first only to see the Hilltoppers battle all the way back to take a 9-8 lead after two innings.
The lead see-sawed back and forth until Notre Dame's Aaron Miller rolled a two-out, two-run single through the right side of the infield in the top of the fifth, snapping an 11-11 deadlock and allowing the visitors to salvage one win out of the four-game weekend series.
Brian Campbell had a huge game at the plate for WLU, going 5-for-5 with 5 RBIs - highlighted by a three-run home run. Delbrugge and Ross Salvatori each singled twice and chased home a pair of runs, Coss had two more singles and scored twice and Matthus added an RBI double.
The Black and Gold will be on the road next week for a Saturday-Sunday series at Alderson Broaddus. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. Saturday in Philippi.
BASEBALL
West Liberty 4, Notre Dame 3
Notre Dame 110 010 0 – 3 6 1
West Liberty 000 013 x – 4 6 3
NDC: Biglin (5SO, 6W), K.Farrell lp (6) (1SO, 2W) and Richards. Petrolla S, rbi; Hudecek S, rbi; Zeuli S, rbi
WLU: Grimm wp (6SO, 0W) and Rine. Coss 2S; Helmke S, rbi
Notre Dame 13, West Liberty 11
Notre Dame 803 020 0 – 13 16 3
West Liberty 361 100 0 – 11 14 1
NDC: Spurgeon (2SO, 2W), Supan (2) (0SO, 2W), Clark (2) (1SO, 0W), Guzik wp (3) (2SO, 1W), Benedict (6) (2SO, 2W) and Miller. Ross D, 3S; Espinelli 3S, 3rbi; Petrolla 2S, rbi; Hray 2S, rbi; Miller S, 3rbi; Aitken S, 2rbi
WLU: Hines (0SO, 2W), Sinisgalli (1) (1SO, 2W), Aulick lp (4) (2SO, 2W), Bolander (6) (2SO, 1W) and Rine. Campbell HR, 4S, 5rbi; Delbrugge D, S. 2rbi; Salvatori 2S, 2rbi; Coss 2S; Matthus D, rbi