The Liberty Bell High School baseball team came back after spring break with a win, a loss (its first of the season), another win and an undecided outcome.
At their home opener on April 14, the Mountain Lions beat Tonasket, 8-5. Liberty Bell had topped Tonasket on the road, 4-2, in its last game before spring break.
Tonasket put a run up in the first inning before Liberty Bell pitcher Sam Thomsen ended the frame with a strikeout. In the bottom of the first, the Mountain Lions countered with two runs when Chip Jones reached on a walk, Cole Darwood benefited from a Tonasket error, and Riley Calvert drove both of them across with a two-run single.
Liberty Bell erupted for five more runs in the bottom of the third inning, taking advantage of a couple of errors and a wild pitch. Thomsen powered through nine of the next 10 Tonasket batters through the fourth.
But the Tigers clawed back with four runs in the fifth inning, helped by three Liberty Bell errors. Jones replaced Thomsen on the mound after one out, and blanked Tonasket the rest of the way. The Mountain Lions added an insurance run in the sixth off the bat of Thomsen, scoring Jacob McMillan from second.
Thomsen recorded the win, and Jones a save.
At Brewster on Thursday (April 16), Liberty Bell ran into a tough pitcher and suffered a 10-0 shutout for its first loss.
“We weren’t sharp defensively and our pitching struggled, but we persisted,” coach Don Calvert said. “Offensively we matched them hit-for-hit with six, failed to find the timely hits, leaving five runners in scoring position.”
In the first game of a double-header at Bridgeport on Saturday (April 18), the Mountain Lions won by an October-like score of 30-19.
“It was 26-3 after two innings and we got a chance to see what our younger players could do for three innings,” Calvert said. “We tried some new guys pitching and they struggled and learned.”
Thomsen pitched two innings for the win. Finlay Holston, Gavin Wengerd and Peter Aspholm each turned in an inning of solid relief pitching, Calvert said.
“All the real action was on our offensive side of the game,” Calvert said of the Mountain Lions’ five-touchdown — wait, make that 30-run — outburst.
Jones stunned Brewster pitching with a grand slam home run, two triples and a single.
“All that running around the bases tweaked a hamstring and that kept him from getting a shot at completing the cycle with a double,” Calvert said. “I think that he will be happy with his nine runs batted in, and he feels fine now.”
Derek Alumbaugh had two doubles and a single for three RBIs, and Dwight Treise and Wengerd each had four hits including a triple each. Isaac Cordes had four hits for two RBIs. Darwood and Thomsen added two hits each. Kaleb Martin chipped in with two hits that produced two RBIs.
The outcome of the second game, which was allowed to start at 6:30 p.m. and was called due to darkness, is under dispute, Calvert said.
The Mountain Lions were at home Tuesday (April 21) against Manson, the first of five consecutive home games. The next one is against Lake Roosevelt at 4:30 p.m. on Friday (April 24), followed by Pateros on April 30, Brewster on May 1 and Okanogan on May 4.
