SALEM, Va. — The West Liberty University softball team won its first Mountain East Conference Tournament title Sunday, cruising to a 5-3 victory against Concord in a battle of regionally-ranked squads at the Moyer Complex.

Sunday’s win completed a four-game tournament sweep for Coach Herb Minch’s surging Hilltoppers (36-17), who have won 18 of their last 21 games heading into this week’s NCAA Division II Atlantic Region Tournament.

West Liberty, ranked No. 4 in last week’s Atlantic Region rankings, never trailed in Sunday’s championship game, jumping out to an early lead with a three-run uprising in the bottom of the second.

Two singles and a fielder’s choice loaded the bases with one out and Kelly Mullins put the Hilltoppers on the board with a two-run single back through the box. After Mullins swiped second, Kaitlyn Stress sprinted home on an infield grounder by Allie Cook and WLU had a 3-0 lead.

The Mountain Lions (38-19), ranked No. 6 in the region, had to win four games on Saturday to battle back through the loser’s bracket and didn’t go away quietly.

With one out in the top of the third, Concord laced out three straight singles to cut the lead to 3-1 and put runners on second and third.

Freshman ace Taylor Bonnett came on in relief but the Mountain Lions were able to tie the game at 3-3 on a wild pitch and sacrifice fly before Bonnett got out of the inning.

Bonnett, one of several Hilltoppers named to the All-Tournament Team, slammed the door the rest of the way. The hard-hitting Mountain Lions managed just two more hits off the freshman, who hurled the final 4 2/3 innings to pick up her second win of the tournament.

West Liberty went ahead to stay in the bottom of the inning when Haley Collett doubled to the wall in right-center to score Kat Donzella from second.

Donzella put an exclamation point on the victory in the fifth when she launched a solo home run into the trees behind the right field fence. Donzella finished the tournament with five hits — including a double and two home runs — while scoring five runs and driving in three.

The Hilltoppers lashed out eight hits in the championship game. Collett had a pair of doubles while Stress and Katie Beeman each singled and scored a run.

Beeman was voted Tournament MVP after going 8-for-12 at the plate over the three days with two home runs and five RBI. Her two-out, two-strike, two-run blast in the top of the seventh on Saturday gave West Liberty a 6-5 win against West Virginia State and sent WLU into Sunday’s title game.

The Bennington sisters — senior second baseman Sydney and freshman pitcher Riley — joined Beeman and Bonnett on the All-Tournament Team.

Regional tournament pairings and host sites will be revealed at 10 a.m. Monday during a live “Selection Show” webcast on the NCAA website (www.NCAA.com). The double-elimination event will be conducted in a split regional format on May 9-11.