CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Liberty University baseball team dropped into the losers' bracket of the 2023 Mountain East Conference Tournament, presented by YES Chevrolet and YES Ford, here Friday with a 5-3 loss to Wheeling in the first game of the day at GoMart Ballpark.
Coach Eric Burkle's Hilltoppers (21-29) will be back in action tonight at 6 p.m. when they take on the loser of the 1 p.m. winners' bracket game between Frostburg State and Concord. That elimination game will be played at the Welch Athletic Complex on the University of Charleston campus.
Pitchers Ian Brady and Justin Pennybacker held the Cardinals to just 3 hits while combining for 8 strikeouts with just 2 walks while West Liberty pounded out 9 hits against five Wheeling hurlers only to come away on the short end of the scoreboard.
Three unearned runs proved to be the difference. Trailing 2-0, the Cardinals' Thomas Kegerreis reached base on an infield error with one out. After a hit-by-pitch put runners on first and second, Brady got Garth Charlton on an infield pop-up for the second out of the inning. Unfortunately, Nick Ancelet – Wheeling's No. 9 hitter – launched the next pitch over the left field fence for a 3-2 WU lead.
James Salvatori doubled home a run in the top of the sixth to tie it for the Hilltoppers but Braden Killens smashed a two-run homer to left in the bottom of the frame to put Wheeling ahead to stay.
West Liberty threatened in the top of the ninth when an infield error and a walk put the tying runs on base but the threat died with a strikeout and fly ball to the outfield.
The Hilltoppers had drawn first blood with two runs in the top of the first. Will Balgo, Trevor Thomas and Brad Goodyear led off the frame with three straight singles to put the first run on the board and Thomas scored on Noah Mildren's infield grounder to make it 2-0.
Seven of the nine WLU starters had at least one hit but the big hit that could have broken open the game proved elusive for the Black and Gold. Following the second-inning uprising, West Liberty managed just one hit – Salvatori's RBI double – in its last 15 at-bats with runners on base and left 11 runners on base.
Wheeling had only five at-bats with runners on base in the entire game but homered in two of them, accounting for all five of its runs. The Cardinals had just two runners left on base.
Salvatori continued his late-season surge with a double, single and RBI while Thomas also had a multi-hit game with a couple of singles. Goodyear drove in WLU's first run and Ryan Talbert added a double.
BASEBALL
MEC Tournament
(at Charleston)
GAME FIVE
Wheeling 5, West Liberty 3
West Liberty 020 001 000 - 3 9 1
Wheeling 000 032 00x - 5 3 1
WLU: Brady lp (4SO, 1W), Pennybacker (6) (2SO, 1W) and Z.Hawkins. Salvatori D, S, rbi; Thomas 2S; Goodyear S, rbi; Mildren S, rbi; Talbert D
WU: Wilcox (1SO, 0W), Parker-McDonald (2) (0SO, 0W), Dyck (2) (1SO, 0W), Dalton (5) (1SO, 1W), McCarley wp (6) (2SO, 2W) and Charlton. Killens HR, S, 2rbi; Ancelet HR, 3rbi
