SWEPT AWAY
Liberty-Eylau boys, girls drop both games to Atlanta teams
Playing hard the entire game has to count for something but doesn’t always translate into a win.
L iber ty - Eylau lost both its games Tuesday at H.E. Markham Park with the boys losing to Atlanta, 11-4, while the girls fell to a good Atlanta team, 15-4, in District 15-4A games.
After taking a 3-2 lead after the second inning, the Leopards could not get much going against Atlanta pitcher Clayton Hancock. Atlanta scored four runs in the fourth and sixth innings. The Lady Leopards trailed the entire game after Atlanta posted 14 runs in the first four innings. The Lady Leopards will play at North Lamar on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by the boys at 7:30.
BOYS Atlanta 11, Liberty-Eylau 4
Ke’mon Freeman made a big play in the second inning as he
made a diving catch in center field to prevent more Rabbit runs.
Tristan Brooks doubled, singled and scored a run for Liberty-Eylau.
Atlanta pitcher Hancock earned the win and struck out nine. Blake Brush took the loss for the Leopards.
Leopard head coach Casey Cauley feels like his team is not where they should be as far as pitching goes.
“Against good teams, we can’t walk ten and hit two batters; it all starts on the mound,” Cauley said. “In our last two district games we worked on it and eliminated that, but we can’t do that in our district; these teams are too good.”
The Leopards scored three runs in the second inning after Brooks smoked a doubled into left field to lead off the inning. Logan Crawford dropped in a short blooper to right field to advance Brooks to third base. Brush drove in a run on a single to left field, and LibertyEylau tallied another run after a throwing error.
“I thought our bats were good. They threw two good pitchers against us, and we had a lot of good at-bats,” Cauley said.
But Atlanta came alive in the fourth inning when Chase Musgrove slapped a single to left field, reached second on an error and stole third base. Cade Coulter walloped a single to left field, and Hancock hammered a one-out RBI double to right-center. One batter later, Colton Dotson, blazed a double to bring in two runs for Atlanta.
The Rabbits had a 6-3 lead going into the top of the fifth inning.
Freeman drew a walk, Noah Broyles smacked a single to right field and Freeman came into score for LibertyEylau after a passed ball. It would be the last run for the Leopards of the evening.
Atlanta opened up the flood gates in the sixth inning by tacking on four more runs with hot bats.
Dotson went 2 for 3 for the Rabbits with a single, a double and three RBI. Nick Bishop went 2 for 3 as he slapped a single, a double and batted in a run.
GIRLS Atlanta 15, Liberty-Eylau 4
Atlanta got the bats going early and did not let up.
Atlanta got nine hits on Liberty-Eylau and coasted by the Leopards. Lexi Oliver had a two-RBI double in the first and an RBI single in the third for the Lady Rabbits.
Lanee Oliver smacked an RBI triple in the fourth for Atlanta, and teammate Caroline Cullins blazed a two RBI triple in the third.
Leopard head coach Todd Tipton believed his pitcher did a great job.
“The score is not indicative of how she pitched. I don’t know how many errors we made,” Tipton said. “She (Howard) pitched well enough to keep us in the game. As a team we let her down”
Tipton also praised sophomore Adrianna Byrd and Sydney Guest.
“Byrd played great defense, and Guest hit the ball well,” Tipton said.
Guest doubled, singled and had two RBI, and Byrd slapped two singles for Liberty-Eylau.
“If we could have had the same defense we did against Pittsburg, things would have been different,” Tipton said.