Liberty Ranch baseball earned a second place in league this year with a 11-4 record.  They played their first playoff game against Wheatland on Tuesday May 9th and came away with the win at home 2-0.  Wheatland was ranked 9th in the playoffs and Liberty Ranch was ranked 8th, so it was a close match up and a good game.

The Hawks had a great second inning when Kade LeCompte got one of his three hits and Shay Setter was walked.  In comes Tyler Bettencourt hitting a double and sending his two team mates home.  Those two runs were the only runs either team would score for the rest of the 7 innings.

Lucas Manning was the pitcher of the day throwing for all 7 innings.  He faced 28 batters striking out 10, walking 2, hitting 1 and allowing no hits.  He did it all only throwing 89 balls.

Manning took the advice of his coaches to heart.  “I just stayed loose and my coaches told me to throw strikes and just go after them,” said Manning. “Outfielders, infielders, Tyler Bettencourt hitting that double, they all did their job and got us the win tonight.”

Head coach Jason Adversalo was very proud how the team played in this important game.

“We played really well,” said Adversalo.  “Our pitcher was just lights out all day long and did a great job on the mound. We had some key hits and Tyler Bettencourt came up with a double with two guys on base and that was the difference.  Everybody did their job and Luke Manning closed the door.”

Thursday the Hawks faced the number 1 ranked Woodland and lost the quarter-final 5-0. Woodland scored bit by bit with 1 run in the first inning, 1 in the fourth, 2 in the fifth and 1 in the sixth.  The Hawks just weren’t able to get around the bases with the Woodland pitcher striking out 10 Hawks and only walking 1.

Kade LeCompte pitched for 4.1 innings striking out 4 and walking 4 throwing 90 balls.  Nathan Nelson finished up throwing 27 pitches and striking out 3.

Woodland only gave up four hits to Nathan Nelson, Shaye Setter, Lucas Manning and Tyler Bettencourt, but each were left on base.