The Liberal softball team opened their WAC season Thursday afternoon and evening in Great Bend.  The Panther topped the Redskins in two competitive games 7-6 and 7-3.

Game one went extra innings as Great Bend walked off Liberal in the bottom of the eighth.  The Panthers scored three in the third before both teams tallied runs in the fourth.  GBHS scored two in the fifth to lead 6-1.  The Redskins scored two in the sixth and three in the seventh to tie the game at 6-6.  Great Bend scored in the bottom of the eighth to end it.  Great Bend out-hit Liberal 8-4.  Liberal struck out 10 times in the loss.  Lexi Miller was 2-4 with a double and three RBI’s.  Jenna Ormiston pitched 7 and 1/3 innings for LHS.

In game two, the Redskins scored two in the first before Great Bend scored single runs in the first, second, third, and fourth innings to lead 4-2.  The Panthers scored three in the sixth to lead 7-2.  LHS scored in the seventh.  Great Bend out-hit Liberal 13-6.  Maedeen McClure and Madeline McCarter had two hits a piece.  McClure had a double and two RBI’s.  Zoey Torres pitched all six innings.

Coach Tom McClure’s comments: “We cut down our errors and made contact. So there was a lot of improvement. However we hit the ball to fielders, or had mechanical errors that resulted in soft hit balls, or we tried to kill it with pitchers that had less velocity than we saw in our first games. We have to find a way to not have the mental side effect when we don’t produce turn into us shutting down.”

Liberal is 0-4 and plays in a triangular at McPherson against Maize and McPherson on Tuesday.