Lady Flames snap losing stream with shoutout
After dropping four straight games on the road last week, the Lady Flames softball team picked up a decisive 6-0 victory over the Presbyterian Blue Hose on Sunday.
Liberty was defeated in both games of a doubleheader on Saturday against the Blue Hose before regaining their winning form. Sophomore Kaylee West broke the game open in the fifth inning with a three-run single and led the Lady Flames offensively.
“I wanted to have a good at-bat and put the ball in play on the ground as hard as I can and hope for the best,” West said.
Up until that point, the Lady Flames were holding onto a slim 1-0 lead consequence of a throwing error that scored sophomore Jenny Law in the third inning.
The Lady Flames added two more insurance runs in the top of the seventh courtesy of run-scoring singles from sophomores Bridgett Woods and Meredith Baisden. The win gave freshman pitcher Katrina Johnson her eighth win of the season.
“If you can score two out runs and you can score in the seventh inning it means you’re still on your game so I was very impressed with that,” Head Coach Paul Wetmore said.
Despite outhitting the Blue Hose in both games on Saturday, the Lady Flames were defeated twice by two runs.
“We didn’t come out with a lot of intensity that we usually come out with and we didn’t jump on Presbyterian. We laid back and expected to win on a couple of runs,” West said.
Presbyterian captured the first game of the doubleheader with a 4-2 upset of the Lady Flames. In the top of the fifth inning, Liberty took a 2-0 lead off a single by Law that scored senior J’nae Jefferson from third.
The slim lead was not enough to keep the underdog Blue Hose out of the game. Presbyterian mounted an impressive comeback in the sixth inning by putting four runs on the board. The Blue Hose scored four runs on three hits to steal the game from the Lady Flames by a final of 4-2.
The Lady Flames looked for revenge in game two of the doubleheader but came up empty-handed. Liberty forced Presbyterian pitcher Leslie Hensley to surrender eight hits but was unable to capitalize on them.
Junior Amber DePasquale scored the only run in the fourth inning after a wild pitch allowed her to cross home plate. The Blue Hose responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs to take the 2-1 lead. Taylor Staten singled to score the tying run for Presbyterian. Staten then stole third base and later scored the go-ahead run on a throwing error.
Presbyterian padded its lead in the fifth inning with a Morgan Durham single to cap off the 3-1 victory. Johnson picked up her fourth loss of the season with four strikeouts and six hits.
“We hit the ball a lot of times right at people and didn’t get runs. So we just didn’t get timely hits. It wasn’t that we played badly we just didn’t get those timely hits,” said Wetmore.
The Lady Flames traveled to Blacksburg, Va., to face non-conference opponent Virginia Tech on Wednesday. In the first game of the doubleheader the Hokies’ offense was overwhelming as Virginia Tech took an 11-4 victory over the Lady Flames.
Liberty took the early lead with two runs in the first inning with a single by sophomore Kelly Strickland that scored Jefferson from second. West singled to drive in junior Cassie Hendrix from third to give the Lady Flames a 2-0 lead.
The Hokies were held scoreless until the third inning when their offense came alive with a five run inning to take control at 5-2. The Lady Flames refused to sit back, and responded in the fourth with a double from Law that scored two runs to bring the Lady Flames within one, 5-4. Virginia Tech added four more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a commanding 9-4 lead over Liberty.
The Hokies added two more runs late in the sixth inning to finish of the Lady Flames 11-4.
Despite the opening loss, the Lady Flames did not back down in the second game. Liberty lost a tight game, 1-0, to the host Virginia Tech. Neither team was able to produce very many hits as both teams finished with four. The Hokies took the victory over the Lady Flames thanks to a solo homer by catcher Courtney Liddle.
The Lady Flames finish off the regular season with a home series against Coastal Carolina. The series starts with a doubleheader on Friday at 2:00 PM.