BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. -- Fairmont State ace Logan Johnson pitched a complete game gem to give Fairmont State a split on Saturday afternoon to open its Mountain East Conference series with West Liberty. The Hilltoppers opened the day with a 7-1 victory.

With the split, the Falcons are now 18-26 overall and 8-18 in the league. WLU improves to 24-19 overall and 12-14 in the MEC.

Johnson (5-4) struck out six batters and walked just two, allowing one run on six hits.

Fairmont State got on the board first when Adam Meeker hit an RBI single to right center in the bottom of the fifth, scoring Brooks Carr. The Falcons pushed their lead to 2-0 in the eighth when Nic Rush singled to right field to bring home Josh Wine.

An error aided a run for West Liberty in the top of the ninth before a fly-out during the next at-bat ended the game, giving Fairmont State the 2-1 win.

The Hilltoppers started fast in the first game of the day, scoring in each of the first four innings to jump out to a 7-0 advantage. The 'Toppers recorded 13 hits in the opening game of the day and were aided by three FSU errors. West Liberty also stole five bases in the win, getting runners in scoring position early.

Jacob Whitmore drove in the only run for the Falcons in game one, scoring Austin Norman on an infield groundout.

Nick Opferman was on the hill for Fairmont State, suffering just his third loss of the season after a slow start.

The Falcons and Hilltoppers will resume the series on Sunday at 12 noon at the Bridgeport Recreation Complex. The start time has been moved up one hour because of the threat of wet weather late in the afternoon on Sunday.