Liberty-Eylau had plenty to celebrate on Senior Night, including a regular-season finale win over cross-town rival Pleasant Grove.
L-E and the Lady Hawks traded momentum back-and-forth all game, but it was the Lady Leopards who grinded out a tightly contested 7-6 victory on Tuesday night to wrap up District 14-4A play at Lady Leopard Field at H.E. Markham Park.
After taking a late lead in the sixth inning and watching it vanish just as quick in the seventh, Liberty-Eylau's Keeley Norris scored the game-winning run on a throwing error with two outs in the bottom of the final stanza to send the Lady Leopard dugout into a frenzy to welcome her at home plate.
"I preach to my girls all year: Find a way to win," Liberty-Eylau coach Kendra Cullum said. "If we do that, we will be alright and that's what we saw tonight."
Liberty-Eylau will go into postseason play as a second seed, while Pleasant Grove could possibly be looking at a three-way tie for a playoff spot.
"If everything works out the way it's supposed to (Tuesday night), there will be a three-way tie," Pleasant Grove coach Becca Collom said. "If Atlanta loses, we won't have to deal with a tiebreaker. If they win, they will be 4-6, we are 4-6 and Pittsburg would be 4-6. We have the head-to-head against Pittsburg, but the problem is we have all beat each other twice. We beat Pittsburg twice, Atlanta has beat us twice and lost to Pittsburg twice."
Pleasant Grove began on a roll, sending seven batters to the plate in the first inning and took the game's first lead when Hanna Snyder crossed home on a Maddie Horn sacrifice fly. In bottom of the frame, Horn retired the side by forcing three grounders.
The Lady Leopards answered back in the second by retiring the side, which included catcher Savannah Phelps throwing a dart to second baseman Tori Foster to catch Madison Allen trying to steal.
Kristin Key and Horn added to the Lady Hawks' lead in the third when Horn connected on a two-run home run over center field, and Liberty-Eylau answered back with a score of its own when Keeley Norris hit a single and came around on an error to cut into its deficit, 3-2.
The Lady Leopards took their first lead in the fifth.
Foster's single, McKenzye Williamson walk and a throwing error would allow the two to score and Kayla Norris, who also singled, would be the third after a wild pitch.
With the Lady Leopards nursing a 6-4 lead going into the top of the seventh, Key belted a game-tying two-run shot in left center to knot the score. However, Liberty-Eylau took advantage of the Lady Hawks' fourth error of the contest to take the win.
"Obviously, if we play cleaner defense we win this ballgame," Collom said. "It's tough. We had two girls step up with runners on base and hit home runs that kept us in the game and that's huge.
"We have to pick ourselves up because if that is the case with a three-way tie, we have to come back out with guns blaring and punching. Hopefully, this knocks some sense into us and sets us straight then we can show up and do what we have to do in a playoff if that's what happens."
#
Pleasant Grove=102=010=2==-=6=7=4
Liberty-Eylau=010=131=1==-=7=7=1
Maddie Horn and Zoe Smith. Isabella Gunderson and Makayla Power. WP-Gunderson. LP-Horn. HR: PG-Horn, 3rd, 1 on; Key, 7th, 1 on.