WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University softball team swept a Mountain East Conference doubleheader from Ohio County rival Wheeling Jesuit Wednesday afternoon at the WLU Softball Complex.
    Coach Herb Minch's Hilltoppers (18-14, 10-4) breezed to a 4-1 win in the first game before holding off the Cardinals (6-26, 3-11) by a 4-3 count in the finale.
    In the opener, Riley Bennington and Makenzie Amend teamed up in the circle to hold WJU to just three hits while the Hilltoppers made the most of their opportunities.
    West Liberty scored two unearned runs on back-to-back two-out errors by the visitors in the bottom of the third and tacked on single tallies in the fourth and sixth frames to seal the deal.
    Bennington worked the first four innings to get the win, striking out 8 while walking 3 and giving up only 2 hits. Amend hurled three innings of one-hit shutout ball for the save, collecting three strikeouts with no walks.
    Kate Meloun had two of West Liberty's four hits and Haley Collett delivered an RBI single in the sixth.
    The Hilltoppers jumped on top with four first-inning runs in the second game and a Cardinal comeback came up short.
    Allie Cook led off the bottom of the first with a triple to right and Meloun followed with an RBI single. Sydney Bennington singled to put two runners on for Katie Beeman, who launched a bases-clearing bomb over the left-centerfield wall for a 3-run home run.
    Anna Paterson went the distance for the win, giving up 8 hits while striking out 7 and walking 2. Cook had two singles to go along with her game-opening triple while Beeman also added a single and a stolen base.
    The Lady Hilltoppers will be back in action on Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader against Concord at the WLU Softball Complex.