HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – West Liberty University sophomore ace Makenzie Amend got the WLU softball season off to a flying start here Friday with a dominating performance in the Charger Chillout, hosted by the University of Alabama-Huntsville.
    Amend gave up only three hits in a complete-game win as Coach Herb Minch's Hilltoppers beat Missouri-St. Louis, 3-1, in a mutual season opener. West Liberty dropped a 10-2 decision to Shorter (Ga.) in the second game of the day.
    In the first game, Amend fanned eight of the first nine hitters she faced and the Hilltoppers led wire-to-wire in cruising to the season-opening win.
    West Liberty opened the scoring with two out in the top of the first when Sydney Bennington beat out an infield single, took second on a wild pitch and came around to score when Katie Beeman plugged the gap in left-center with an RBI double.
    The Hilltoppers tacked on two more runs in the top of the fourth. Bennington singled again and later scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Allie Cook. Beeman, who had reached back on an infield error, then sprinted home on a bunt single by Haley Collett to make it 3-0.
    That was more than enough cushion for Amend, as the returning All-Region hurler was in mid-season form. She scattered three hits and held UMSL to a single run while fanning 14 batters with only three walks.
    In the second game, Shorter (4-2) was already leading 3-0 when the Hawks batted around in the bottom of the fourth to push six runs across the plate and put the game out of reach.
    The southern squad pounded out a dozen hits against a trio of WLU hurlers. The Hawks also took advantage of some shaky early-season fielding miscues as five of their 10 runs were unearned.
    West Liberty averted the shutout when Kat Donzella led off the top of the fourth with a home run to deep left field. The Hilltoppers added another tally in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Skylar Bogan but it was too little, too late.
    West Liberty returns to the Huntsville Sportsplex for two more games on Saturday. The Hilltoppers will take on Union (Tenn.) in an 11 a.m. contest before going up against Delta State (Miss.) at 3 p.m.
  West Liberty                 100 200 0 – 3  5  1
Missouri-St. Louis       000 100 0 – 1  3  3
     WLU: Amend wp (14SO, 3W) and Donzella. Beeman D, rbi; S.Bennington 2S; Collett S, rbi
     MSL: Kingery lp (6SO, 0W), Tiffee (6) (0SO, 2W) and Mrzlak. Sundling D, rbi; Martinez D
  West Liberty                   000 11 –   2    3  3
Shorter                             120 61 – 10  12  1
     WLU: R.Bennington lp (0SO, 2W), Paterson (2) (3SO, 1W), Bonnett (5) (1SO, 0W) and Donzella, C.McConnell (5). Donzella HR, rbi; Bogan S, rbi
     SU: Lippert wp (6SO, 3W) and Combs. Holland 3S, rbi; Martin D, S, 2rbi; Lukas 2S, rbi; Combs D, rbi; Newell D; Hunt S, 2rbi