WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. - The West Liberty University softball team lost both games of its home-opening doubleheader Tuesday afternoon, 8-1 and 3-2, to Shepherd.

Game 1: Shepherd (8) - WLU (1)
Shepherd took advantage of five West Liberty errors and smacked 11 hits rolling to a game-one victory. The Rams got on the board in the second inning, then added two in the fourth, four in the fifth, and one in the sixth to go up 8-0.

Sidney Little went 2-for-3 with a walk out of the leadoff spot for the Hilltoppers and scored their lone run in the bottom of the sixth. Little led the sixth off with an infield single, then moved up on a Kylie Imes pinch-hit single, and came home on Anna Welsh's RBI one-out single through the left side.

Ashlyn Tapman suffered the loss over 3.1 innings pitched, but was able to strike out seven Ram batters. Madison Angus tossed two, no-hit innings to close out the game.

Game 2: Shepherd (3) - WLU (2)
West Liberty came up short in a hard-fought game two in its home opener. After Shepherd got on the board in the top of the first, the Hilltoppers were able to tie it in the third with a Jaden Conrad RBI single. Sidney Johnson, who walked to lead off the inning, scored on the Conrad single. The Rams kept it at 1-1 stranding two Hilltoppers in the third.

Shepherd took back the lead in the top of the fifth with a two-out, two-run single.

Anna Welsh belted her second home run in three games with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to get the Black and Gold within one.

West Liberty filled the bases later in the bottom of the sixth, but could not capitalize stranding all three. A two-out single in the bottom of the seventh from Kylie Imes got the tyiing run on base again, but a third strikeout in the inning ended the game the next at bat.

Imes ended the game reaching base twice, adding a walk to her seventh inning single. Sydney Johnson also reached base twice in the game with a pair of walks. West Liberty struck out 11 times and left seven runners on base in the narrow loss.

Ryleigh Morgan started and suffered the loss for WLU, while Leah Alford and McKenzie Baer both threw scoreless innings in relief.

Up Next
West Liberty will be right back at the Hilltopper Softball Complex tomorrow at 2 & 4 pm against Salem.

Follow West Liberty Softball online all season at HilltopperSports.com and on Twitter (@WLU_Softball & @WLathletics), Instagram (@wlu_softball & @wlu_athletics), and Facebook.