Softball | 4/29/2018 5:20:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Senior Savanna Sieger fired a one-hit shutout here Sunday as the West Liberty University softball team split a season-ending doubleheader with Urbana on Senior Day at the WLU Softball Complex.
    Coach Herb Minch's Hilltoppers (21-23, 13-19) rode Sieger's strong right arm to a 1-0 win in the first game before the Blue Knights (10-40, 8-24) came from behind to take a 6-4 nod in the finale.
    West Liberty's six seniors – Sieger, Madison Collet, Katie Higginbotham, Kelsi Johnson, Marley Thompson and Charley Troggio – were honored prior to the twinbill along with graduate assistant coach Leanna McMillen and student athletic trainer Caleb Engle.
    Several of those seniors came up big during Sunday's doubleheader and Sieger was especially impressive.
    The four-year veteran from Kingsburg, Calif. carried her no-hitter all the way to the sixth inning only to see Urbana senior Courtney Kennedy lead off the frame with a clean single to left. Sieger shook off the disappointment and retired the final six batters to complete the gem, breezing through the Blue Knight lineup with six strikeouts and no walks.
    Three Hilltopper seniors had a hand in producing the game's only run. Higginbotham opened the bottom of the third with a single up the middle and took second on Sieger's successful sacrifice. Katie Beeman's single moved Higginbotham to third, putting her in position to score what proved to be the winning run on a sacrifice fly by Johnson.
    Higginbotham and Beeman each had two hits to lead the WLU attack.
    West Liberty carried a 4-2 lead into the seventh inning of the second game only to see an error open the door for the visitors, who tallied four unearned runs to pull out the come-from-behind win.
    Beeman had another big game at the plate with a home run, double and two RBIs while Johnson and Makenzie Amend each singled twice and chased home a run in a losing cause.
  Urbana                                                000 000 0 - 0  1  1
West Liberty                                      001 000 x - 1  5  1
     Urb: Pate lp (2SO, 0W) and Jackson. Kennedy S
     WLU: Sieger wp (6SO, 0W) and Troggio. Beeman 2S; Higginbotham 2S
  Urbana                                                010 001 4 - 6  9  0
West Liberty                                      000 130 0 - 4  9  1
     Urb: Allen wp (1SO, 0W) and Jackson. Swanson 2HR, 3rbi; Jackson 2S, rbi; Holtz 2S; Pate S, rbi
     WLU: Sieger (1SO, 0W), Amend lp (3SO, 4W) and Donzella. Beeman HR, D, 2rbi; Johnson 2S, rbi; Amend 2S, rbi