West Liberty opened a four-game non-conference baseball series with 2-0 and 5-4 wins over Pitt-Johnstown in the Mountain Cats' 2020 home debut, Saturday afternoon at Point Stadium.
Isaiah Kearns collected three hits for Pitt-Johnstown, which slipped to 8-5.
Colton Coss' two-run single to right in the top of the fifth opened the scoring and gave West Liberty a 2-0 lead in the opener.
That's all Hilltoppers' starter Luke Nees would need. Nees needed just 72 pitches to earn the complete-game shutout. Nees scatted four hits, struck out three, and walked one to even his record at 1-1.
Boston Bradley and
Dylan Broderick each doubled, while
Isaiah Kearns and
Asher Corl accounted for the other two hits for Pitt-Johnstown.
Dylan Heid took the loss for the Mountain Cats and slipped to 2-1 after allowing two runs on three hits over the first five innings. Heid fanned seven and walked five.
Ben Briggs tossed the final two innings and held West Liberty hitless.
Bailey McGrath singled and doubled and Coss drove in two to lead the Hilltoppers.
In game two, jumped out to a 3-0 second-inning lead and held on for a 5-4 win to complete the sweep.
West Liberty struck for three runs in the top of the second. Brian Campbell's triple to the gap in right=center plated Tyler Ramsey and McGrath, before Ramsey scored on a two-out wild pitch.
Bradley's RBI groundout in the bottom of the second got the Mountain Cats on the scoreboard, but Brad Matthus led off the third with a solo homer to left to make it 4-1.
Pitt-Johnstown got an RBI single from Broderick and a RBI double from
Lennox Pugh to cut it to 4-3 after three innings.
The Hilltoppers added a run in the top of the sixth to go up 5-3.
The Mountain Cats loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, but West Liberty's Justin Pennybacker surrendered just one run to pick up the save and preserve the 5-4 win.
Tyler Smith went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Kearns singled, doubled and scored a run for Pitt-Johnstown. Pugh doubled and had an RBI, and Bradley had one RBI.
Braxton Roxby allowed four runs on four hits over the first five innings to fall to 1-2. Roxby struck out 12 and walked three.
Matt Mosholder pitched the final two innings and gave up a run on two hits.
With the sweep, West Liberty improved to 4-8.
Pitt-Johnstown concludes the four-game series against West Liberty with a doubleheader on Sunday at 1 at Point Stadium, before going to Shippensburg for a non-conference game on Tuesday and to Concord (WV) for a non-conference doubleheader on Thursday.
