Baseball | 4/2/2021 5:55:00 PM

Box Score 1     INSTITUTE, W.Va. – West Virginia State held onto its share of the Mountain East Conference South Division lead here Friday with a doubleheader sweep of West Liberty in MEC baseball action at Cal Bailey Field.
    Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers (8-9, 6-4), who came into the day having won five of their last six games, fell by scores of 6-4 and 13-2 to a Yellow Jacket squad that has now won nine of its last 10.
    In the opener, Jason Schutte got WLU off to a flying start with a 3-run bomb over the right field fence in the top of the first but the Black and Gold couldn't hang on.
    West Virginia State (12-4, 9-1) got a 2-out, 3-run home run of their own from Andrew Massey in the bottom of the fifth to erase a 4-3 Hilltopper lead and held on for the win.
    Schutte had a double to go along with his 3-run blast. Brian Campbell doubled and singled while Kaden Blomquist tacked on an RBI single in the third.
    In the finale, the hosts batted around in the bottom of the third to break the game open with a seven-run uprising, highlighted by a grand slam. State added two more runs in the fourth and added a three-run homer in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
    Colton Coss had a pair of singles for the Black and Gold while Kaden Blomquist added another RBI single and Chad Matthus doubled.
    It's out of the frying pan into the fire for West Liberty on Saturday as they visit South Division co-leader Charleston (15-3, 9-1) for an afternoon doubleheader.
     West Liberty                                         301 000 0 – 4    9  0
W.Va. State                                           010 230 x – 6  10  1
     WLU: Pennybacker lp (5SO, 4W), Sinisgalli (6) (0SO, 1W) and Rine. Schutte HR, D, 3rbi; Campbell D, S; K.Blomquist S, rbi
     WVSU: Saranczak (1SO, 0W), Peterson (1) (0SO, 0W), Brandon wp (2) (5SO, 0W) and Massey HR, S, 4rbi; Stone 2S, rbi; Hunt D, rbi
  West Liberty                                         000 002 0 –   2    4  1
W.Va. State                                           107 230 x – 13  14  1
     WLU: T.Blomquist lp (0SO, 3W), Bernard (4) (1SO, 0W), Varner (6) (1SO, 1W) and Rine. Coss 2S, K.Blomquist S, rbi; Matthus D
     WVSU: Bradley (2SO, 1W), Reese wp (4) (3SO, 2W) and Massey, Ball (4). Harrison HR, 3S, 4rbi; Junkins HR, S, 5rbi; Jordan D, 2S; Kline D, S, 2rbi