Gallery by Tina Laney
After some tough years in Glen Daniel, the Liberty baseball team is off to a solid start this year.
Friday night, the Raiders lined up against reigning regional champion Shady Spring.
The last thing head coach Jonathan Hall wanted to see was his team hand out gifts to the Tigers.
Unfortunately for the Liberty head man, his team was in a generous mood.
Benefiting from nine walks and five errors from the visitors, Shady Spring handed the Raiders an 11-1 loss in five innings.
“Yesterday (against Princeton) we were swinging out of our shoes and stuff like that. I told the guys to have a good approach tonight,” Shady Spring head coach Jordan Meadows said. “No matter who is pitching I wanted them to see pitches until they got a strike. We have been working on that stuff.”
Patience by the Tiger hitters and struggles finding the strike zone from the opening pitch put Liberty in a quick hole.
Six straight walks, a passed ball and a run-scoring fielder’s choice staked Shady Spring to a 4-0 lead after the first inning.
“Guys were being too aggressive, which can be a good thing, but also a bad thing,” Meadows said. “Today we were disciplined at the plate and had a lot of walks. We hit when we needed to and we scored some runs.”
A single by Logan Ellis to start the Liberty second was erased on a 6-4-3 double play, but Liberty kept swinging the bat and finding gaps.
Isaac Williams followed with a single and headed for third on a base hit from Isaac Davis. When the ball could not handled in left field, Williams raced home for Liberty’s only run of the night.
A walk to Glenville State University signee Jake Meadows to open the bottom of the frame once again stung the Raiders when Meadows scored on a throwing error later in the inning.
The fielding struggles continued into the third inning and were the eventual undoing of the Raiders.
“It’s just our fourth game, but I hope that is our bad one,” Hall said. “We haven’t made errors like that in practice or games this year. It was just one of those nights.”
A pair of fielding errors, one coming on a potential double play, started the merry-go-round for Shady. When Sam Barnett singled up the middle scoring a pair of runs, the Tigers had pushed the advantage to 10-1.
A double from Barnett in the bottom of the fifth scored Aiden Calvert bringing the 10-run mercy rule into play.
“We started off walking six in a row and then (Landon Hall) came in and threw some really good ball,” Hall said. “He only allowed one earned run. I told the guys, last year if we would have played that bad, they would have scored 30 runs. We are a substantially better team and we will prove that in the coming weeks.”
One of the bright spots for the Tigers was the trio of pitchers that stood on the hill Friday.
Grant Lawson picked up the win, surrendering one unearned run, while Carter Pack and Noah Fox combined to pitch three innings without allowing a hit.
“Two freshman and a senior tonight. We are working on some guys, but like I said in the preseason, strike throwers and I am happy. I don’t like a walk-fest,” Meadows said. “Fox is going to be a hell of a player throughout his four years. These guys are stepping up and hopefully we can get them rolling by sectional and regional time.”
The victory Friday was also an important sectional win for Shady Spring.
“It didn’t matter what our record was coming into tonight, we were 0-0 in the section and this is the first sectional game and it matters,” Meadows said. “It is good to be 1-0 in the section. We have Nicholas County on Tuesday and we are excited.”
Even though his team did not have its best night, Hall still saw positive signs in the loss.
“We put the bat on the ball and we have shown that in the few games that we have played. Hopefully we can keep that going and just get better,” Hall said. “Shady still has a great team and Jordan is a great coach. He has them ready to play and they don’t make the mistakes we make. We are going to get there.”
