Baseball | 5/8/2011 3:23:20 PM

WASHINGTON, Pa. – Regionally-ranked California (Pa.) used eight pitchers to hold off an upset-minded West Liberty baseball team in a mutual regular-season finale Saturday night as the Vulcans escaped with a 5-2 win in a scheduled 9-inning game at CONSOL Energy Park.

California (29-16) – No. 5 in last week's NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings – managed only 6 hits against the five Hilltopper hurlers but bunched half of them in the fourth inning to plate three runs and take what proved to be an insurmountable 4-0 lead.

West Liberty (14-32) outhit the Vulcans, 7-6, and moved runners into scoring position in six of the first eight innings but couldn't come up with a big inning of its own, settling for single tallies in the fifth and eighth frames.

Andrew Henry led the Hilltopper attack with a pair of singles. Derek Daugherty had an RBI double while Trent Chapman also doubled. Jeff Welsh brought home the visitors' final run on an infield grounder.

West Liberty remains in contention for a berth in this week's West Virginia Conference tournament, which gets under way on Thursday in Beckley. The WVIAC tournament field will be announced on Monday.

BASEBALL

California (Pa.) 5, West Liberty 2

West Liberty                      000 010 010 - 2 7 1

California (Pa.)                  001 310 00x - 5 6 2

    WL: Triantafillo (0SO, 1W), Hayden lp (3) (0SO, 1W), Reef (5) (1SO, 2W), Graham (6) (1SO, 1W), Welsh (7) (3SO, 0W) and D.Daugherty. Henry 2S; Daugherty D, rbi; Chapman D; Welsh rbi

    Cal: MacNamara (3SO, 0W), Zimm wp (3) (0SO, 1W), Ryan (4) (0SO, 0W), Thomas (5) (1SO, 0W), Weary (6) (0SO, 1W), Kirker (7) (1SO, 0W), Hulme (8) (1SO, 0W), Sturgill (9) (1SO, 0W) and Petty. Ordy 2S, rbi; Teagarden D, rbi; Petty S, rbi; Bowser S, rbi