WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The Slippery Rock softball team outlasted West Liberty, 5-4, here Wednesday in a 14-inning marathon that stretched well past the 3-hour mark in non-conference action at the WLU Softball Complex. Darkness halted the second game after five innings of play with the score tied at 4-4.
    In the first game, neither team scored until The Rock scratched out a single tally in the top of the eighth inning but the Hilltoppers answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the frame and the game moved on.
    The score remained tied, 1-1, until the top of the 11th when Slippery Rock got an RBI single from Anna Villies for a 2-1 lead but once more the Hilltoppers came up with the equalizer. Katie Beeman started the bottom of the 11th on second base due to NCAA tiebreaker rules. Beeman moved up to third on a sacrifice bunt by Annie Paterson and came sprinting home on Lauren Garcia's suicide squeeze.
    Slippery Rock scored single runs again in the 12th and 13th frames but WLU answered with a run each time to stay alive.
    The Hilltoppers' luck ran out in the top of the 14th when SRU scored a single run for the fourth straight inning to go up 5-4. West Liberty threatened again with runners on first and third with one out in the bottom of the frame but some stellar defense by Slippery Rock finally brought down the curtain.
    Jairika Baylor tried to bring home the runner from third with another suicide squeeze but the Slippery Rock third baseman read the play and came charging down the line to field the bunt and flip it to the catcher for a tag at home and the second out. The catcher then gunned the ball to the shortstop covering third base who tagged out the runner trying to go from first to third, ending the game.
    Becker had two singles and an RBI for West Liberty while Garcia had an RBI single to go along with her suicide squeeze. Grace Swigart doubled for WLU's only extra-base hit. Makenzie Amend started the game and pitched five innings of no-hit softball with 8 strikeouts and no walks. Annie Paterson came on in relief and wound up throwing nine innings, striking out 7 and walking one.
    In the second game, the Hilltoppers were able to break through with three runs in the bottom of the fifth and forge a 4-4 tie just before the umpires called the game due to darkness.
    Paterson doubled, singled and drove in a run while Kayla Mancuso added a pair of singles. Riley Bennington's two-out RBI single brought home the tying run in the bottom of the fifth.
    West Liberty hits the road on Saturday for a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Mountain East Conference North Division rival Frostburg State.
  Slippery Rock                    000 000 010 011 11 - 5  7  1
West Liberty                     000 000 010 011 10 - 4  8  1
     SRU: Anderson (7SO, 4W), Sharman wp (9) (3SO, 2W) and Kennedy. Villies 2S, 2rbi; Gardner 2S; Hozak S, rbi; Brown S, rbi
     WLU: Amend (8SO, 0W), Paterson (6) (7SO, 1W) and Holbrook, Grace (6). Becker 2S, rbi; Garcia S, 2rbi; Swigart D
  Slippery Rock                    310 00 - 4  6  1
West Liberty                     001 03 - 4  8  0
     SRU: Hurd (5SO, 2W) and Kennedy. Gardner D, S; Kennedy D, rbi; Fisk S, 2rbi
     WLU: Bennington (2SO, 2W) and Holbrook. Paterson D, S, rbi; Mancuso 2S; Bennington S, rbi