Revised lineup stabilizes Liberty, enables win over No. 6 Wildcats

After seeing his team’s eight-game winning streak broken in its last game, Liberty softball coach Jim Portese decided to change his starting lineup Friday.

Don’t expect Portese to mess with it any time soon.

“I kind of liked what I saw out there,” Portese said. “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll stay with this for a while.”

Breanna Alvarez singled in Ashleigh Rodriguez with the go-ahead run in the fifth inning, and host Liberty pulled away in the later innings for a 5-1 victory over No. 6 Las Vegas.

Alvarez went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and pitched 1 2/3 innings in relief to get the save.

No. 9 Liberty (12-6, 9-3 Division I Sunrise League) committed four errors in a 7-6 loss to Foothill on Wednesday. Portese moved Marisa Olmos to first base, Cali Christopher to shortstop, Jessica Meza to left field and Kelsey Camat-Toki to right field, and the Patriots were nearly mistake-free in the field against the Wildcats (7-5, 7-5).

“I just felt we needed a change because we were making a couple of errors that we shouldn’t have made in games,” Portese said. “They work hard every day in practice, and I just wanted to change it up a little bit. I got what I wanted out of it.”

Liberty caught a break in the bottom of the fifth when Rodriguez reached on a wind-aided, three-base error that allowed Meza to score from first and tie the game 1-1. After a walk to Olmos, Alvarez lined a two-out single up the middle for a 2-1 Patriots lead.

Christopher added a sacrifice fly as part of a three-run sixth before Olmos poked a run-scoring single to left to put Liberty up 4-1.

“I was just waiting for a spark,” Portese said. “And with any of these kids that’s in the lineup, any of them can give us a spark. Because when we get solid pitching like we did, it was just a matter of time.”

Liberty starter Soraya Seumalo allowed one run and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. She got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second when second baseman Kylie Hefley made a diving stop and threw out Alexia Osborn to end the inning.

Las Vegas went ahead 1-0 in the fourth inning when Skylar Gorrell walked and went to third when nobody covered the base after Samantha Taylor’s sacrifice bunt. Gorrell scored on Arienn Ackerman’s sacrifice fly.

Gorrell tripled with one out in the fifth off Seumalo, but Alvarez retired the next two batters to preserve the Patriots’ one-run lead.

“Your big-time players have to play big every game,” Portese said. “And they know that I expect that from them. I put a little bit of pressure on them, but they understand the task at hand.”

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ