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Walk-Off Homer Salvages Split for WLU Baseball

Baseball | 4/14/2017 6:58:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Yale Hughes hammered a 2-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 13th inning here Friday to give the West Liberty University baseball team a split of its Mountain East Conference doubleheader with Urbana at Kovalick Field.
Coach Eric Burkle's regionally-ranked Hilltoppers (20-11, 14-4) came up short by a 7-5 count in the first game but Hughes' clutch extra-inning blast gave them a 5-4 win against the Blue Knights (13-21, 7-11) in the finale.
The second game, a scheduled 9-inning contest, was a nail-biter all the way. Urbana plated two runs in the top of the third but West Liberty, No. 8 in the latest Atlantic Region rankings, knotted the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth.
The score remained tied until the top of the ninth when the visitors' Tanner Davis cracked a solo homer over the right field wall. Tyler Ramsay kept the Hilltoppers alive with an RBI single in the bottom of the frame to force extra innings.
Neither team scored again until the top of the 13th when Mickey Losey put the visitors back on top with a leadoff home run.
West Liberty wasted no time putting together its game-winning comeback. After Nolan Marcus beat out an infield single and was sacrificed to second, Hughes launched a bomb deep over the right-centerfield fence to give WLU its fourth straight 20-win season.
Tori Fuscardo got the win with four innings of one-run relief. Justin Retzer had a strong start, striking out 10 and giving up just three runs on six hits over the first nine innings. Bub Haddox had a double and two singles while Coby Eckstein and Nolan Marcus each had a pair of singles. Justice Jackson added an RBI triple and Alex Rojas chipped in with an RBI single.
A seventh-inning rally came up just short in the opener as WLU plated two runs and put the tying runs in scoring position with one out but couldn't bring them home.
West Liberty had grabbed an early lead with three runs on four hits in the bottom of the first but didn't get another hit until the seventh as Urbana stormed back to take a 7-3 lead.
A one-out walk and a Mike Adams single got things started in the seventh. Hughes followed with an RBI single and Eckstein's RBI double put the tying runs on second and third but the Blue Knights got a strikeout and infield groundout to hang on for the win.
Eckstein and Adams had two hits each for the hosts while Ramsay had a 2-run single in the first and Haddox added an RBI base knock.
The teams return to Kovalick Field Saturday at 1 p.m. for another doubleheader.

BASEBALL
Urbana 7, West Liberty 5
Urbana       003 031 0 - 7  11  1
West Liberty 300 000 2 - 5    7  1
UU: Orr wp (2SO, 6W), Guerrero (7) (1SO, 0W) and Davis, Tanner (7). Davis D, 2S, 2rbi; West D, S, rbi; Franklin D, S; Coy S, 2rbi; Burkholder S, rbi
WLU: Pare lp (2SO, 2W), Shook (6) (0SO, 1W) and Rojas, Harper (7). Eckstein D, S, rbi; Adams 2S; Ramsay S, 2rbi; V.Haddox S, rbi; Y.Hughes S, rbi

Urbana 4, West Liberty 3
(1 out when winning run scored)
Urbana      002 000 001 000 1 - 4    9  0
West Liberty 000 020 001 000 2 - 5  12  1
UU: Guay (3SO, 1W), Woolever (9) (0SO, 0W), Guerrero lp (9) (1SO, 1W) and Tanner. Brown 2S, rbi; Franklin 2S, rbi; West 2S; Davis HR, rbi; Losey HR, rbi; Quiroz D
WLU: Retzer (10SO, 2W), Fuscardo wp (10) (1SO, 0W) and Rojas. V.Haddox D, 2S; Eckstein 2S; Marcus 2S; Y.Hughes HR, 2rbi; Jackson T, rbi; Rojas S, rbi; Ramsay S, rbi
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Players Mentioned

Coby Eckstein

#7 Coby Eckstein

IF
6' 2"
Sophomore
Yale Hughes

#16 Yale Hughes

P
6' 4"
Senior
Justice Jackson

#12 Justice Jackson

OF
6' 1"
Junior
Nolan Marcus

#10 Nolan Marcus

P/IF
5' 8"
Junior
Alex Rojas

#4 Alex Rojas

C
5' 11"
Senior

Players Mentioned

Coby Eckstein

#7 Coby Eckstein

6' 2"
Sophomore
IF
Yale Hughes

#16 Yale Hughes

6' 4"
Senior
P
Justice Jackson

#12 Justice Jackson

6' 1"
Junior
OF
Nolan Marcus

#10 Nolan Marcus

5' 8"
Junior
P/IF
Alex Rojas

#4 Alex Rojas

5' 11"
Senior
C