Liberty avoids bad inning to capture first softball regional championship since 2009

CAMP POINT, Ill. — B.J. Fessler was prepared for it to happen.

The Liberty softball coach had watched, time and time again this season, his team play well but lose games because of one disastrous inning.

So when the Eagles took the lead in Friday afternoon’s Class 1A regional championship game with three runs in the bottom of the third inning, Fessler worried.

“I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I was expecting that other shoe to drop. We’ve always had one inning this year when we’d give up five or six outs, and it would destroy us.”

“We would make a couple of mistakes, then we’d all get down on ourselves,” Liberty shortstop Madi Tritsch said. “We wouldn’t cheer anymore, and we would just let our energy go.”

That never happened Friday.

After allowing Unity to score twice in the first inning, Liberty put up five consecutive scoreless innings defensively and made just one error in a 9-3 victory. The regional title is the first for the Eagles since 2009.

Liberty (9-16), the fifth seed in the Jacksonville Routt Sectional, advances to Tuesday’s semifinals against No. 1 seed Illini Bluffs, which defeated Triopia 12-2 in five innings at the regional in Lewistown.

It would be fair to say few expected the Eagles to advance.

They finished the regular season by losing 10 of their last 12 games. Three of those losses were to Unity — 6-1 and 8-4 on April 22, and 10-7 on May 10.

However, a 5-4 upset of third-seeded Central in Wednesday’s regional semifinals gave the Eagles one more chance against Unity, which upset No. 2 seed Pleasant Hill in the other semifinal.

“Nobody beats us four times,” Tritsch said.

The Mustangs (9-12) struck first when Annabelle Schaffnit delivered a two-run single in the first inning. Liberty countered with a run in the bottom of the inning on a double steal.

Liberty nearly didn’t score any runs in the third. With two outs, Ally Lefringhouse was hit by a pitch. She stole second base and moved to third on a passed ball. Larissa Neisen then hit a pop-up near the Liberty bench that Unity first baseman Taylor Goudschaal got a glove on but couldn’t hold on to.

Neisen then hit a ground ball that third baseman Sophia Shaffer mishandled, allowing Lefringhouse to score. Natalie Hildebrand followed by smoking a line drive off the left-field wall for a double to score Neisen. Hildebrand came around on a single to left by Tiffanie Will.

Eagles pitcher Jade Blair had the Mustangs under control after the first inning. She allowed just six more hits and walked one batter. She retired 13 out of 15 batters during a stretch from the second to the sixth innings. 

“The girls are believing in themselves, locking down on defense and making plays like we thought they could,” Fessler said. “I knew it was there. I really did.”

Liberty could smell the title after shutting down Unity on three straight groundouts to Tritsch in the sixth inning. 

“Madi is our mot athletic player, and we’ve asked her to take shortstop this year because she was our catcher last year,” Fessler said. “She has exceeded my expectations.”

“I was thinking, ‘We’ve got this,’” Blair said.

Liberty added five insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Makenna Zanger delivered an RBI single, and Anna Wheelock doubled down the third-base line to plate two more runs. A fielding error and a hit batter with the bases loaded allowed two more runs to score.

Goudschaal had an RBI double in the seventh for Unity, but two fly balls and a pop-up ended the game and had Liberty dancing in the infield.

“Our goal was to get to this game,” Fessler said. “We knew this group was talented, but getting them to believe in themselves took all year. I don’t know what clicked. There were a few games where there were some shining moments, but it’s really starting to click right now.”

Blair said the Eagles are finally trusting each other.

“We told ourselves before these games that we really wanted to win regionals, and we really wanted to get to the championship,” she said. “Everyone did what they were supposed to do.”