Baseball | 4/2/2014 9:05:00 AM
Box Score PARKERSBURG, W.Va. – Ohio Valley exploded for seven first-inning runs and a West Liberty comeback fell short as the Hilltoppers dropped a 7-4 decision in a scheduled 9-inning game on Tuesday.
A grand slam off the bat of Bruno Holmann capped the early seven-run uprising for the Fighting Scots (9-14) in the bottom of the first. Mike Reef and Yale Hughes blanked the hosts on just four hits the rest of the way as West Liberty (15-10) tried to battle back. Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers broke the scoring ice with a single run in the top of the fifth and went on to make things a little more interesting in the top of the seventh. D.J. Busby, Dylan Pounds and Mike Johnson ripped out three straight RBI singles, cutting the lead to 7-4, before a walk to Tim Mirandy loaded the bases to put the tying runs aboard with just one out. Unfortunately for the Hilltoppers, OVU got out of the inning with no further damage and faced the minimum over the final two frames to close out the win.
Busby and Jon-Michael Brunner each had a pair of hits for West Liberty. Mirandy added a double as the Hilltoppers racked up 10 hits in a losing cause. West Liberty returns to MEC action on Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Urbana.
BASEBALL
Ohio Valley 7, West Liberty 4
West Liberty 000 010 300 – 4 10 2
Ohio Valley 700 000 00x – 7 7 4
WLU: Grosul lp (0SO, 2W), Hilt (1) (1SO, 1W), Reef (2) (2SO, 0W), Y.Hughes (5) (3SO, 0W) and Francis, Carranza (6). Busby 2S, rbi; Brunner 2S; Pounds S, rbi; Johnson S, rbi; Mirandy D.
OVU: Hughes wp (3SO, 1W), Reyes (7) (0SO, 0W), Davis (7) (1SO, 1W) and Soto-Bello. Rine D, S; Hatfield 2S, rbi; Holmann HR, 4rbi
