Gallery by Heather Belcher
New Richmond – Thus far it has been a banner week for Wyoming East on the softball diamond.
An extra inning win at Nicholas County was followed by a Paytin Brehm no-hitter to beat county rival Westside Tuesday.
Wednesday night the Warriors traveled to Madison and knocked off highly-touted Scott.
Carrying a five-game winning streak into Thursday, the question became could Wyoming East keep the momentum going against a young and feisty group of ladies from Glen Daniel.
The Warriors were indeed up to the task, but Liberty made it interesting and refused to go down without a fight, falling 8-5 in New Richmond.
“Tonight we didn’t get the hits. We hit the ball, but they made some plays. They made two or three good catches,” Wyoming East head coach Robert “Doc” Warner said.
Liberty scratched a run across in the opening frame before the home team answered in the bottom of the inning.
Back-to-back single by Emma Simpson and Kayley Bane set the table for what appeared to be a big first inning.
However, when Liberty starter Maddie Cox recorded a strikeout and coaxed a foul ball pop-out to third base, the Raiders looked on the verge a of a huge escape.
Those hopes were quickly dashed when Alivia Monroe launched a solid shot into right-center field scoring both runners.
Neither team could then score until they traded runs in the bottom of the fourth and the top of the fifth innings.
Wyoming East moved the lead to 3-1 on a sacrifice bunt from Paytin Brehm prior to Liberty cutting the advantage in half on an RBI-double from Keandra Spurlock.
The bottom of the fifth was eerily similar to the first inning for East.
Simpson and Bane again ripped back-to-back singles and Cox struck out the next batter.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, a couple of errors opened the gates for the Warriors.
An infield ground ball from Andrea Laxton got through to score Simpson. Bane crossed the dish when the ball was dropped at first on a ground ball from Monroe.
With Laxton and Monroe on base, when Liberty likely should have been out of the inning, Carli Raye smacked a double to score both runners, capping the four-run outburst.
“We had one bad inning and we made some mental errors that cost us two runs,” Liberty head coach Mary Green said. “But our bats are coming on and they are making really good plays.”
Liberty threatened, but could not score in the sixth. Savannah Brehm added to the lead with an RBI-single for what appeared to be a comfortable 8-2 lead heading to the final inning.
Looks were deceiving.
Three straight walks, a throwing error and a double from Allison Griffith which scored two runs, cut the lead to 8-5 with no outs.
Griffith then moved up to third on a wild pitch, but that was as close as it came to another run for the Raiders.
Paytin Brehm came on and recorded two strikeouts sandwiched around Bane nailing a runner trying to steal second to end the threat.
“This was not a bad game,” Green said. “I told them that one inning does not define how they played tonight. They did really well. I am super proud of these kids.”
In her second year as head coach, Green has seen a marked improvement from her team that has her and assistant coach John Brown excited.
“We are a really young team. We have 11 freshman and two or three sophomores. We only have four juniors and no seniors. Last year I think we were 4-15, maybe,” Green said. “We have a good group of kids and the ones that came back really want to play this year. They work really well together and that has made a huge difference.”
So far this season, the young Raiders have tallied eight wins, with a couple of games slipping away strictly due to youth.
“We have made some mental errors this year, but that is just from being young. They have been playing really good ball overall,” Green said. “There were a few games that we should have won, but a few errors have taken us out of those games. It seems like we lose a game because of one inning.”
Even with the up and down struggles of youth, Liberty has already exceeded its goal for wins this year and the Raiders are sure to be a force in the coming years.
“I wanted to win more (games) than we did last year and we have already surpassed that,” Green said, proudly. “This group wants to play together and they are doing so good. We will be really competitive the next couple of years.”
