WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University baseball team split a Mountain East Conference North Division doubleheader with Alderson Broaddus here Friday afternoon at a warm but windy Kovalick Field.
    Coach Eric  Burkle's Hilltoppers (7-27, 7-11) were 1-0 shutout victims in the first game but broke out the heavy artillery to pound out a 9-3 victory over the Battlers (4-26, 4-14) in the finale.
    In the opener, two junior right-handers – WLU's Justin Pennybacker and AB's Ryan Varley – locked horns in a classic pitchers' duel. The only score of the game came with two out in the top of the first when an error on an infield pop-up allowed the Battlers' Joey Alcorn to score all the way from second base. Alcorn had reached base on a one-out single and moved up to second on an infield out.
    Alcorn's single was one of only five hits surrendered by Pennybacker, who took the hard-luck loss despite not allowing an earned run while striking out seven and giving up two walks.
    Varley, however, was even more dominant. He struck out 13 West Liberty batters and issued only one free pass while scattering four hits in the complete-game shutout. Connor Ferguson singled twice and Ty Helmke doubled in a losing cause.
    The second game was all Hilltoppers from the start as Alderson Broaddus starter Dylan Kautz, who came into the game with a 2-0 record, couldn't get out of the first inning against the resurgent WLU offense. Helmke led off the bottom of the frame with a triple to the wall in left center. Helmke stayed put when Jake Sherman followed with a bunt single but scored on a Ryan Talbert sacrifice fly.
    Brad Goodyear went down on an infield popup for the second out of the inning but Kayne McGee hammered a Kautz fastball deep over the 20-foot high right field wall into the teeth of a 25 mph wind for a two-run homer. Kautz left the game after walking Connor Ferguson but reliever Julian Russell got out of the inning with no further damage.
    The Hilltoppers were far from finished. Single runs in the second and fourth innings pushed the lead to 5-0 and when Goodyear led off the bottom of the fifth with a towering home run into the trees behind the left field fence, the floodgates swung wide open.
    West Liberty wound up sending 10 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fifth with four of them scoring to give starting pitcher Ian Brady a 9-0 lead heading to the sixth. Brady worked a scoreless sixth but ran out of gas in the seventh as he attempted to finish off the shutout.
    The Battlers lived up to their nickname, plating three runs in the top of the seventh before Jacob Bolander – the third WLU pitcher of the inning – struck out the last two batters to end the game and preserve the win for Brady.
    McGee went 2-for-2, driving in two runs with a single and a walk to go along with his home run. Helmke had a two-run single to accompany his leadoff triple, Sherman smacked out a pair of singles and Ryan Talbert collected a couple of RBIs.
    The teams return to Kovalick Field on Saturday for another MEC twinbill. First game is set for 1 p.m.
  Alderson Broaddus              100 000 0 - 1  5  0
West Liberty                          000 000 0 - 0  4  4
     AB: Varley wp (13SO, 1W) and Rice. Brennan D, S
     WLU: Pennybacker lp (7SO, 2W) and Rine. Ferguson 2S; Helmke D
  Alderson Broaddus              000 000 3 - 3  11  0
West Liberty                          310 140 x - 9    8  0
     AB: Kautz lp (0SO, 0W), Russell (1) (3SO, 3W), Roman (5) (2SO, 2W), Loudermilt (5) (1SO, 0W) and White, Rice (5). Ballnger 2S, rbi; Marinucci 2S, rbi; Rosado 2S; Alcorn 2S; Piontka S, rbi