High School Softball: Thompson Leads Liberty Girls Past Century

Liberty behind pitcher Mackenzie Thompson edged neighbor Century 2-1 in softball Monday.

Thompson struck out 11 Knights and also had a hit in the fifth inning when the Lions scored their two runs.

"She did something to herself over the weekend. Playing tournament ball to her hip," said coach Chris Szocik. "She was a little questionable earlier in the day. She went to the trainer, got stretched out and waited to see what was going to happen with the warm-ups. She looked strong in warm-ups. She’s a gamer, she said I can probably do it, I just want to let you know to keep someone warm just in case. After I saw her a couple innings and talked to her she was fine."

With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Julie Oros walked and Thompson followed with a single to center. The throw went to third and Thompson hustled to second to put runners on second and third with one out. Samantha Trail followed with a walk to load the bases.

Rebecca Garcia hit into a fielder’s choice as one run scored. With runners on first and third, Natalie Gill got an infield single to knock in the winning run. Gill had three of the Lions five hits in the contest. Thompson and Becca Oneto had the other hits for Liberty.

"The hitting is not as good as we would like to see it. Balls get put in way, but you know. Even through we are hitting balls at people we are still managing to scratch it through," said Czocik.

The Lions are 6-1 in the county and 8-1 overall. Century falls one game out of first in the county at 5-2. They are 7-2 overall.

"We just didn’t put the ball in play enough. She had 14 strikeouts or something like that. That means we only put seven balls in play for outs. That’s not enough. We have to do better than that. We were hitting the ball fairly well early in the game. The farther we went into the game the less we hit it," said Century coach Jay Seaborg.

Century scored their lone run in the first inning. Meagan Beane opened the game with a hit to left, Katie Pugh followed with a bunt that moved Beane to third. Pugh stole second and Beane scored on the throw to second. Thompson settled down to strike out three batters to get out of the inning.

Liberty loaded the bases with two out in the second inning, but Century escaped without giving up a run.

Century loaded the bases in the top of the sixth with two out, but the rally ended on a fly ball to Kaitlyn Weisgerber in left.

"It’s just a loss. At the end of the day, we are 5-2 and they are 6-1. We are still a game behind them. We still have half the season to go. We haven’t played North Carroll yet, we haven’t played Westminster yet. We just have to shake it off and get ready for the next game," said Seaborg.

Both squads return to the diamond on Wednesday. Century plays host to Westminster while Liberty is home with Winters Mill.