Baseball | 4/28/2018 6:09:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
    BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – The West Liberty University baseball team pulled into a tie for second place in the Mountain East Conference North Division here Saturday by sweeping a doubleheader from Fairmont State.
    Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers (16-22, 14-12) rallied for a 6-2 win in the opener before blasting the Falcons (21-20, 14-12) by an 11-1 count in the finale at the Bridgeport Recreation Complex.
    Senior righthander Justin Retzer held the hosts to just five hits in the opener, striking out 10 Fairmont hitters while not walking a batter to earn his sixth win and fourth complete game of the season.
    West Liberty found itself on the short end of a 2-1 count after four innings but single tallies in the fifth and sixth frames put the Black and Gold ahead to stay. The visitors added three unearned runs in the seventh on a trio of FSU errors to give Retzer plenty of breathing room.
    Bub Haddox clubbed a solo home run while Dalton Davis and Ethan Estes had RBI doubles to pace the WLU offense.
    Junior southpaw Parker Dyson took his turn in the spotlight for the finale. Fairmont got on the board with a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the third but couldn't do much with the hard-throwing lefty after that.
    Dyson held the Falcons to just five hits for the second straight game while posting 12 strikeouts and only one walk for his fourth win and fourth complete game of the season.
    Coby Eckstein's 3-run homer in the top of the fourth broke open a tight contest, giving the Hilltoppers a 5-1 lead. West Liberty settled the issue in the top of the fifth, batting around to put six more runs on the board.
    Eckstein had two singles to go along with his circuit blast and finished with four RBIs. Estes, Nolan Marcus and Chad Matthus each had two singles and drove in a run while Justice Jackson also had a multi-hit game with a pair of base knocks.
    Davis tacked on another run-scoring double and Chad Harper had a 2-run single as West Liberty raked five FSU pitchers for 14 hits to complete the sweep.
    The teams return to Bridgeport on Sunday for another 1 p.m. doubleheader.
  West Liberty                               001 011 3 - 6  5  1
Fairmont State                           000 200 0 - 2  5  5      
     WLU: Retzer wp (10SO, 0W) and Davis. V.Haddox HR, rbi; Davis D, rbi; Estes D, rbi
     FSU: Stout lp (7SO, 1W), Morris (6) (0SO, 1W) and Hill. Zombro 2D, 2rbi; Sanders 2S
  West Liberty                               002 360 0 - 11  14  0
Fairmont State                           001 000 0 -   1    5  1
     WLU: Dyson wp (12SO, 1W) and Davis. Davis D, rbi; Eckstein HR, 2S, 4rbi; Estes 2S, rbi; Marcus 2S, rbi; Matthus 2S, rbi; Jackson 2S; Davis D, rbi; Harper S, 2rbi
     FSU: Smith lp (2SO, 4W), Aloi (4) (0SO, 0W), Burch (4) (0SO, 0W), Velasquez (4) (0SO, 1W), French (5) (1SO, 1W) and Hessler. Zombro 2S; Krantz D