WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University baseball team came within an out of sweeping a doubleheader from WVIAC Southern Division leader West Virginia State Wednesday afternoon at Kovalick Field.

Coach Bo McConnaughy's Hilltoppers rallied to a 6-4 victory in the second game after West Virginia State had taken the opener by an 8-6 count in nine innings.

In the lid-lifter, the Yellow Jackets (13-8, 13-3) scored on a wild pitch with two out in the bottom of the seventh to erase a 6-5 West Liberty lead and send the game into extra innings. The visitors scored twice in the top of the ninth to pull out the win.

Dillon Mangino had three singles for the Hilltoppers (8-21, 5-7) while reigning WVIAC Player of the Week Trent Chapman added a single, double and RBI. Zane Madden chased home a pair of runs with two singles while Josh Nagel chipped in with a pair of hits and Andrew Henry had an RBI single.

West Liberty roared back from a 4-2 deficit to win the second game, scoring twice in the bottom of the fifth to knot the score at 4 and adding two more tallies in the fifth to take the lead for good.

Mangino continued to swing a hot bat with a double, two singles and a pair of RBIs while Derek Daugherty had a triple, single and RBI and Nagel added two more singles. Ryan Zelinski contributed an RBI base knock.

Jeff Welsh pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the seventh to pick up the save as the Hilltoppers collected their third win in the last four games.

West Liberty, which held onto third place in the WVIAC North with the split, travels to Shepherd on Sunday for a 1 p.m. doubleheader.

BASEBALL

W.Va. State 8, West Liberty 6

W.Va. State 031 001 102 - 8 11 1

West Liberty 101 202 000 - 6 10 1

WVS: Goodall (2SO, 4W), Kendall (6) (2SO, 0W), Fox (7) (2SO, 1W), Butcher wp (8) (0SO, 3W) and Fisher. Thompson 3S, rbi

WL: Triantafillo (0SO, 5W), Hapney (6) (1SO, 1W), Shyosky (7) (2SO, 2W), Peterson lp (1SO, 1W) and D.Daugherty. Mangino 3S; Chapman D, S, rbi; Madden 2S, 2rbi; Nagel 2S; Henry S, rbi

West Liberty 6, W.Va. State 4

W.Va. State 010 030 0 - 4 6 3

West Liberty 010 122 x - 6 9 1

WVS: Lewis (2SO, 1W), Baker lp (0SO, 3W) and Fisher. Fisher D, rbi

WL: Taylor (0SO, 5W), Hayden (5) (0SO, 1W), Stewart wp (6) (0SO, 1W), Welsh (7) (1SO, 1W) and D.Daugherty. Mangino D, 2S, 2rbi; D.Daugherty T, S, rbi; Nagel 2S, rbi; Zelinski S, rbi