The state tournament provided an unfortunate buzz saw for the Raider bats, though.
Liberty was blanked 8-0 in five innings in its opener against Logan and fell 12-2 in five innings again in its second loss of the state tournament against Petersburg Wednesday evening at Little Creek Park in South Charleston.
The Raiders managed just two hits against Logan, striking out 14 times against ace Myleigh Adkins and struggled much the same against the Vikings who they notched six hits against.
“We just didn’t have it today,” Liberty head coax Mary Green said. “I think we left (the bats) in Raleigh County. But I aint complaining. Four teams out of the whole state came up so we can hold our heads high. I’m sad because it’s my baby’s last game. She’s a senior but I am so proud of those girls. Ain’t nothing to be ashamed of.”
Adkins proved particularly problematic for Liberty. Of her 66 pitches, 50 were for strikes with her velocity overwhelming the Raiders. Combined with her movement, the hosts on the scoreboard couldn’t get a beat on her all afternoon.
“We told them all week she’s fast,” Green said. “It’s not so much the speed, it just moves. That ball can move everywhere. I told them, ‘You keep swinging at the rise ball, she’s going to keep throwing you the rise ball.’ She’s good. She’s just a good little pitcher. Our girls, it just took them a minute. One or two of them started to get on it.”
Stella Brown and Kanyon Green were the only Raiders to notch a hit off of Adkins.
Logan’s bats didn’t have the same struggles, scalding the ball for 12 hits with Adkins and Addison Star launching a home run each in the win. Adkins led the overall charge, going 4-for-4 with four RBI in addition to her performance in the circle.
Aiming to rebound after a 90-minute intermission, the Raiders found life on offense early in their elimination game against Petersburg.
After yielding a run in the top of the first inning, Alyssa Scarbro started the charge with a leadoff single, scoring when McKinlea Hill tied the previous game’s hit output with an RBI double.
Two batters later Allie Bowles grounded out to short to plate Hill, giving the Raiders a 2-1 advantage. But it quickly exchanged hands again.
Abigail Nettles singled to leadoff the second inning, scoring on a bunt before a pair of doubles pushed the Vikings’ advantage to 4-2.
It remained at two runs until Ella Markwell blasted a three-run no-doubt home run in the fifth inning to build a cushion. But the nightmare was only just beginning as Petersburg pushed across five more runs to cap an eight-run frame.
Liberty was able to put a pair of runners on in the bottom of the fifth but proved unable to push them across and extend the game.
The loss brings Liberty’s campaign to an end at 18-10 but marks a return to competitive relevance after a decade of failing to make it out of the section.
“Obviously you’ve always got to tighten up the few little errors we had and figure out why the bats weren’t on,” Green said.”You have those days though and this guys happened to be one of them. But there’s three other teams that deserve to be here also. We’re not upset in the least and I’m so proud of them.”
