IN SPORTS: LIBERTY RANCH WINS DOUBLE HEADER
GALT — One of the reasons that the Liberty Ranch High softball team sits in first place in the Sierra Valley Conference is because of its offense.
El Dorado saw that first hand on Wednesday.
The Hawks flexed their muscles against the Cougars in the first game of an SVC doubleheader at the Galt Sports Complex. That led to Liberty Ranch posting a 13-4 win.
Liberty Ranch (10-1 in the SVC, 16-2-1) also won the nightcap, 14-8, in a game that lasted nearly two hours. The Hawks hold a one-game lead over second place Rosemont (9-2 in the SVC, 14-4). El Dorado and Union Mine are both 5-6 and tied for third place. The top three SVC teams advance into the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs next month.
The first game was tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the second inning. That’s when Liberty Ranch sent 12 players to the batter’s box that resulted in eight runs off six hits — the Hawks finished with seven in the game — and three walks.
Leading the attack was second baseman Kharizma Lathipanya-Kham, who had two of the Hawks’ hits in the frame. In the same inning, she also had four stolen bases and scored twice. Joining her in the hitting parade was winning pitcher Celina Maberto, who doubled to center field, and base hits by leadoff hitter Jordyn Farren, Lexi Davis and Audrey Brookins. That led to a Hawks soaring to a 10-2 advantage.
“That’s kind of how things have been going,” said Liberty Ranch coach Shauna DalBianco. “We’ll get a run or two, and then we just open it up. That just gets the girls jazzed. Big hits.”
El Dorado pitcher Cheyenne Price silenced the Hawks’ bats in the third inning, allowed no hits. But the Cougars, who scored their first two runs in the top of the second thanks to a double from Price and a single by Alora Wright, couldn’t generate an offensive flow. That was largely due to the Hawks’ infield of Lathipanya-Kham, Farren, who normally catches but played shortstop, Haley Ward behind the plate and Davis at first base. They combined to record 15 of 21 outs.
“We’ve been doing good,” DalBianco said. “We just had to move (players) around. We practice them in those positions. They may not play them a lot, but they get a ton of practice just in case stuff happens. They step up and they do their job.”
After Price clubbed a solo home run into left field in the top of the fourth inning to cut the Hawks’ lead to 9-3, Liberty Ranch wasted little time in scoring again. Brookins walked and scored on Lathipanya-Kham’s third hit of the game, a single to left field, in the bottom of the fourth to make it 11-3.
El Dorado’s Veronica Cortez tripled to left field and scored on Kaylee Hinds’ grounder to make it 11-4 in the fifth inning. But the Hawks scored their two runs came in the bottom of the fifth inning. Farren reached first base on an El Dorado infield error, and Kayla Rocha walked. Both scored on the Cougars’ second error of the inning. El Dorado had three in the inning and contest.
This was a make-up game for both schools — they were suppose to have played single games earlier this month. But the delay doesn’t seem to bother the Hawks’ 12-player squad. In between those games, the players and the Liberty Ranch student body and faculty also had their spring break.
“The girls are just chomping at the bit to play,” DalBianco said. “Every game from here on out is big. At any point, any team can step up and do their job.”