WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University softball team saw its winning streak hit double-figures on Monday when the Black and Gold swept a Mountain East Conference doubleheader from Notre Dame (Ohio) at the WLU Softball Complex.
    Coach Herb Minch's surging Hilltoppers (14-8, 4-0) continued to dominate from the circle, blanking the visiting Falcons (6-12, 2-2) by scores of 4-0 and 8-0. West Liberty has won six of its last seven games by shutout and is outscoring its opponents by a whopping 72-7 margin during the current 10-game win streak.
    In Monday's opener, the Black and Gold pushed a couple of unearned runs across the plate in the bottom of the first and that was more than enough breathing room for the hard-throwing duo of Makenzie Amend and Taylor Bonnett, who teamed up on a six-hit shutout.
    Amend hurled the first six innings of scoreless ball, recording 13 of her 18 outs via the strikeout route, before Bonnett came on to work a scoreless seventh inning. Annie Paterson drove in two of WLU's four runs with an RBI groundout and run-scoring base knock. Madge Weidner singled twice and Riley Conkle doubled.
    Paterson had a big game in the circle and at the plate in the finale as West Liberty needed just six innings to finish off the sweep. The senior southpaw got the complete game win, striking out 5 and walking 2, while helping her cause considerably by going 3-for-4 at the plate with two extra-base hits and three RBIs.
    Paterson put herself and the Hilltoppers ahead to stay with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first before coming back later in the game with a run-scoring double to invoke the 8-run mercy rule in the bottom of the sixth. Conkle backed Paterson with a double, single and RBI while Lauren Garcia also had an RBI single during a five-run second inning that broke the game wide open.
    The sizzling Hilltoppers will look to keep building on their winning streak this weekend with a challenging road trip. West Liberty visits perennial Atlantic Region power West Virginia State on Saturday for a 2 p.m. doubleheader before heading to the University of Charleston on Sunday for a 1 p.m. twinbill.
  Notre Dame (Ohio)         000 000 0 - 0  6  4
West Liberty                     200 110 x - 4  5  0
     NDC: Weilnau lp (2SO, 0W), Olszewski (6) (0SO, 0W) and Fording. Marsh D; Rehm D
     WLU: Amend wp (13SO, 0W), Bonnett (7) (0SO, 0W) and M.Blair. Weidner 2S; Paterson S, 2rbi; Conkle D
  Notre Dame (Ohio)         000 000 - 0  5  2
West Liberty                     250 001 - 8  9  1
     NDC: Vance lp (0SO, 3W), Olszewski (2) (1SO, 1W) and Fording. Anderson D, S; Rivera 2S
     WLU: Paterson wp (5SO, 2W) and M.Blair. Paterson HR, D, S, 3rbi; Conkle D, S, rbi; Garcia S, rbi