The Liberty Bell High School girls’ softball team continued its surge toward a high seeding in post-season play with two wins last week over Pateros, followed by disappointing losses to Brewster and Okanogan.
On Thursday (April 30), the Lady Lions edged Pateros, 6-4, in the first game of a double-header at home, followed by a more convincing 15-0 win in the second game.
Pateros led Liberty Bell by 2-1 in the fourth inning of the first game, but then the Lady Lions’ bats came alive and the team put up four runs in the fifth. They added a run in the sixth to seal the victory.
Kelsey Baldwin pitched all the way, backed by a defense that committed only one error. At the plate, Liberty Bell sprayed a dozen hits around the field. Lauren Ochoa, Devin Surface, Whitney Fox and Baldwin each contributed two hits.
In the second game, the Lady Lions put up a lot of runs early and never looked back. Baldwin baffled Pateros, allowing just one hit in five innings while the defense committed one error.
Ochoa added two more hits and Baylee Canedo was three-for-four.
Liberty Bell was back on the home diamond on Friday to face Brewster, and suffered an 11-3 loss. Coach Lee Pilkinton said the Lady Lions played well for the first four innings and held a 3-2 lead.
But that was all the scoring Liberty Bell would muster, as Brewster put a total of nine runners across the plate in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Baldwin again pitched a complete game. The Lady Lions’ only three hits came from Surface, Baldwin and Kuirstin Pilkinton.
In Monday’s home game (May 4) against Okanogan, the Lady Lions scrambled back from a four-run deficit but fell one run short in a 7-6 loss at home. Payback was possible on Tuesday (May 5), when they traveled to Okanogan for another game. See next week’s paper for details of that game.
Liberty Bell is scheduled to play at Manson on Thursday (May 7), then finish the regular season with a non-league home double-header against Concrete beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday (May 9).
