When West Liberty fell to West Virginia Wesleyan earlier today, 5-2, on the hilltop, it snapped a 12-game winning streak for the Hilltoppers’ softball team and head coach Herb Minch.
Included in that stretch was a sweep of Concord, which provided Minch with his 500th career victory.
Two of local products were a big key for that success and were honored as such as the MEC Player and Pitcher of the Week.
During a brilliant week at the plate for the all-region junior from Wheeling Park, Donzella batted a robust .619 with a 1.095 slugging percentage. She went 13 of 21 at the plate with four doubles, two round-trippers whilst scoring nine runs and bringing home six more.
The Hilltoppers’ catcher leads the MEC in batting average (.453), and hits (39), and is second in slugging (.709), home runs (4), and total bases (61).
Doing her damage from the circle, sophomore Riley Bennington capped a 3-0 week with a save and a 0.50 ERA in four appearances. During that span, she struck out 18 batters, walked three, and allowed just one run on nine hits.
The former Wheeling Central standout is fourth in the MEC in ERA (1.99), and opponent’s batting average (.186).
Their efforts enabled the Hilltoppers to surge in the MEC North Division standings, where they currently sit in second place behind Frostburg State.
Provisional Marks Continue
Wheeling field specialist Liz Fleming continued her domination in her signature events this week at the Slippery Rock Invitational.
She won the hammer throw with a distance of 55.49m. The previous week, she hit 55.73m in the hammer and 14.67 in the shot. Both were provisional marks and the hammer toss established a WU best in the event. Fleming has the eighth best hammer throw in the country and seventh best in shot.
Fleming isn’t the only Cardinals’ athlete hitting her provisional mark, however.
Graduate student Danielle Stewart finished first in the pole vault at Slippery Rock with a vault of 3.83m. The provisional mark is 3.67.
A potential trip to the NCAA championship meet would be huge for Stewart, who qualified for the indoor championships during the winter of 2020, only to be pulled off the track before the meet began thanks to the pandemic.
She was unable to compete this winter because of an injury and the Strongsville, Ohio native is making a solid push with little more than a month to go before the NCAA Championships on May 27 at Grand Valley State.
Cards Love Going Yard
During Saturday’s sweep of Frostburg State, the Wheeling baseball team clubbed four home runs, pushing its season total to 18 and setting a single-season mark for the program.
While Riley Cameron has the most on the team with five, it’s been a shared effort that’s led to the offensive firepower for Wheeling.
Luis Dominguez, who hit a game-tying home run against Frostburg on Saturday, and Chris Iazzetta have three apiece.
Anthony May has two and five other Cardinals’ have one apiece.
Not to be outdone, Cardinals freshman softball player Autumn Oehlstrom is leading the MEC in home runs with seven.
Weekly Conference Honors
The following athletes were honored last week by the MEC as the top performers in their respective sports:
| Players of the Week |
| Football Offense/Defense/Special Teams: Guy Myers, UC/Taybus Taylor, NDC; Zach Strand, Frostburg St.; Owen Rozanc, West Liberty. |
| Men’s Track & Field: Jason Wetzel, Concord |
| Women’s Track & Field: Elizabeth Fleming, Wheeling |
| Men’s Golf: Lucas Ross, UC |
| Women’s Golf: Kailey Pettit, West Liberty |
| Men’s Soccer Offensive/Defensive: Josh Yeaman, West Liberty; Pedro Alves, Notre Dame |
| Women’s Soccer Offensive/Defensive: Yasmin Mosby, Concord; Alexis McKeown, Alderson Broaddus |
| Baseball Player/Pitcher: Ryan Rodriguez, Glenville State; Colt Webb, UC |
| Softball Player/Pitcher: Kat Donzella, West Liberty; Riley Bennington, West Liberty |
| Women’s Lacrosse Offensive/Defense: Summer Carvey, Frostburg State; Marissa Cuevas, Davis & Elkins |
| Men’s Swimming: |
| Women’s Swimming: |
| Men’s Tennis: Frantisek Pirek, UC |
| Women’s Tennis: Haarini Balakrishnan, UC |
| Acrobatics & Tumbling: |
Note: The MEC Notebook highlights the top news and notes from around the Mountain East Conference.
