Baseball | 4/29/2018 7:16:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
    BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – The West Liberty University baseball team mounted a late comeback here Sunday to earn a split of a Mountain East Conference doubleheader with Fairmont State at the Bridgeport Recreation Complex.
    Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers (17-23, 15-13) bounced back from a 7-2 setback in Sunday's opener to hand the Falcons (22-21, 15-13) a 9-5 loss in the finale. The Black and Gold took three of four games from Fairmont in the weekend series to climb back into a tie for second place in the MEC North.
    West Liberty had to come from behind twice to pull out the win in the second game.
    The Hilltoppers plated four runs in the top of the fourth to erase a 2-0 Falcon lead only to see Fairmont answer with a 3-run rally in the bottom of the frame to go back on top by a 5-4 count.
    Fairmont maintained that one-run edge until the sixth inning when WLU put together its winning rally.
    Bub Haddox and Tyler Ramsey each came through with 2-run singles while Ethan Estes kept the merry-go-round going with a run-scoring single of his own as the visitors sent nine men to the plate in a 5-run uprising that all but put the game out of reach.
    Luke Nees, who had come on in relief of Logan Grimm to get the final out in the fifth inning, blanked the Falcons over the final two frames to earn the win.
    Ramsay drove in three runs with a double and a single while Estes and Justice Jackson each had two hits and an RBI. Chad Harper singled twice and Coby Eckstein weighed in with a run-scoring double.
    In the opener, Fairmont jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings and the Hilltoppers couldn't fight their way back.
    Jackson had a double and a single for the Black and Gold while Colton Coss singled and drove in a run.
    The Hilltoppers head to western Pennsylvania on Tuesday for a 1 p.m. non-conference doubleheader at Indiana (Pa.)
  West Liberty                               000 020 0 - 2    6  1
Fairmont State                           203 200 x - 7  11  0
     WLU: Marcus lp (3SO, 1W), Blomquist (4) (1SO, 0W) and Harper. Jackson D, S; Coss S, rbi
     FSU: Lutjens wp (4SO, 3W), Morris (6) (1SO, 0W) and Hill. Norman D, 2S, rbi; Krantz D, S, rbi; Yaksich 2S; Hill S, rbi; Sanders S, rbi; Zombro S, rbi
  West Liberty                               000 405 0 - 9  11  1
Fairmont State                           110 300 0 - 5    8  1
     WLU: Grimm wp (2SO, 5W), Nees wp (5) (1SO, 0W) and Harper. Ramsay D, S, 3rbi; Estes 2S, rbi; Jackson 2S, rbi; Harper 2S; Eckstein D, rbi; V.Haddox S, 2rbi
     FSU: Paull (0SO, 0W), Velasquez (4) (1SO, 1W), Maiers lp (5) (2SO, 1W) and Hill. Norman HR, S, rbi; Myers D, S, rbi; Hill D, S