WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Makenzie Amend fired a 3-hit shutout and Sydney Bennington delivered the game-winning hit in both games here Tuesday as the West Liberty University softball team took a pair from Ursuline (Ohio) at the WLU Softball Complex.
    Coach Herb Minch's surging Hilltoppers (15-10) picked up their 12th win in the last 13 games with 1-0 and 4-2 decisions against the visiting Arrows (5-17).
    In the opener, Amend struck out the side in the top of the first and went on to fan 13 Ursuline batters in cruising to her eighth win of the season.
    The hard-throwing sophomore lost her perfect game with two out in the fourth when opposing pitcher Brooklyn Miller bounced a single up the middle. An error put runners on first and third but Amend got the next batter to foul out to the catcher, ending what proved to be the Arrows' only threat.
    The 13 strikeouts gave her 82 whiffs on the season, which leads the MEC, and was her fourth double-digit strikeout game of the year.
    Bennington led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo home run for the game's only score. Allie Cook had two of West Liberty's five hits with a single and a double.
    The second game was another pitcher's duel with WLU's Anna Paterson and Ursuline's Nicole Rawlings matching zeroes until the Arrows broke through with two unearned runs in the top of the fourth.
    Rawlings carried a 2-hit shutout into the fifth but Paterson led off that frame with a blast over the right field fence and the Hilltopper bats rumbled to life.
    Cook and Kat Donzella wrapped a pair of singles around a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Kate Meloun and Donzella swiped second to put two runners in scoring position for Bennington.
    The hard-hitting senior didn't disappoint, roping a double down the right field line to chase home both runners and put WLU on top, 3-2. Bennington was cut down at third trying to leg out a triple but Katie Beeman followed with a double and came around to score the final run on a throwing error.
    Paterson went the distance in the circle to pick up the complete-game win, yielding just two unearned runs while holding the visitors to five hits. The freshman hurler finished with 5 strikeouts and didn't walk a batter.
    The WLU women return to Mountain East Conference play on Saturday when they travel to Fairmont State for a 2 p.m. twinbill.