Baseball | 4/21/2018 7:09:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Regionally-ranked Shepherd strengthened its hold on first place in the Mountain East Conference North Division here Saturday by sweeping a doubleheader from second-place West Liberty during Alumni Weekend at Kovalick Field.
    Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers (14-17, 12-10) dropped a 5-1 decision in the first game before the Rams (24-12, 18-4) took advantage of some WLU fielding miscues to pull away to a 10-4 nod in the finale.
    Shepherd got a two-out, two-run single from Eddie Nottingham in the top of the first and that turned out to be all the offensive support Ryan Potts needed as the Rams' ace shut down the Hilltopper offense in the opener.
    Potts racked up 11 strikeouts and issued only one walk while scattering four hits in a complete-game gem. Tyler Ramsay led off the second inning with a solo home run to account for West Liberty's only tally.
    The second game see-sawed back and forth for much of the early going.
    Shepherd got a two-run homer from Brenton Doyle in the top of the fifth to open up a 5-2 lead but the Hilltoppers responded in the bottom of the frame.
    A sacrifice fly by Ramsay and a two-out RBI single off the bat of Justice Jackson trimmed the deficit to 5-4. Another single and a walk loaded the bases but the Rams got an infield grounder to preserve the one-run lead.
    That came back to haunt West Liberty in the top of the frame as an infield error opened the door and Shepherd stormed right through with five unearned runs to put the game out of reach.
    Dalton Davis had a solo home run and a single for WLU while Coby Eckstein added a double and a single. Chad Harper contributed an RBI double.
    The Hilltoppers will try to rebound on Sunday when they host Shepherd in another twinbill, beginning at 1 p.m.
  Shepherd                                     201 010 1 - 5  7  0
West Liberty                               010 000 0 - 1  4  0
     SU: Potts wp (11SO, 1W) and Nottingham. Doyle D, 2S; Atkinson HR, rbi; Nottingham S, 2rbi
     WLU: Retzer lp (8SO, 3W), Nees (7) (1SO, 0W) and Davis. Ramsay HR, rbi
Ryan Potts
  Shepherd                                     101 125 0 - 10  10  1
West Liberty                               010 120 0 -   4    7  2
     SU: Manz wp (4SO, 3W), Johnson (5) (0SO, 1W) and Hamel. Atkinson D, 2S; Doyle HR, D, 3rbi; Hamel HR, D, 3rbi; Smith HR, 2rbi
     WLU: Dyson lp (5SO, 2W), Nees (6) (1SO, 0W), Shook (7) (0SO, 0W) and Davis. Davis HR, S, rbi; Eckstein D, S; Harper D, rbi; Jackson S, rbi