SUNRISE SOFTBALL: Liberty wins pair of elimination games to set up meeting with Rancho

Liberty’s softball team won a pair of elimination games Friday to advance to the championship game of the Division I Sunrise Region tournament.

After defeating Foothill 5-3 in an earlier game, the Patriots used a healthy dose of offense — and strong pitching from Soraya Seumalo and Breanna Alvarez — to knock off Coronado 8-4 in the losers’ bracket final.

Liberty (22-9) faces Rancho (27-7) in the region final at noon Saturday at Bishop Gorman. Liberty would need to defeat Rancho twice to win the double-elimination tournament.

“Coronado, Foothill, those are two quality programs that are well coached and by us doing what we did today, now we can be mentioned in the same breath as those programs,” said Liberty coach Jim Portese, whose team finished fourth in the Sunrise League this season. “I think it helped us in that we played a game, and had one underneath our belt. I think it’s sometimes beneficial because they’re already loose, they’re already warmed up, they already played a game. I think we had the advantage in that and it showed today.”

The Patriots opened the second game by taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Though Coronado freshman pitcher Ashley Ward showed poise in attempting to attack the strike zone, she couldn’t settle into a groove. Cougars coach Missy Krueger pulled her after just a third of an inning, but the Patriots already had seized momentum.

“I think her philosophy was ‘You go with who you have for as long as you can,’” Portese said. “I did the same thing with Soraya as long as I could before I brought in Bre. I think she had the same philosophy with her freshman, but our kids are good hitters and they proved it today.”

Coronado (26-10) actually outhit Liberty, 10-6, but it was the timeliness of the Patriots’ hits in the fourth inning that helped them pull away.

Jasmine Gonzalez and Jessica Meza hit back-to-back singles before Cali Christopher popped out to short. Ashleigh Rodriguez then hit a sharp single to right-center field, and Marisa Olmos followed with a double to the left-center field wall to put Liberty ahead 8-3.

“They focused, they remembered their techniques and used their fundamentals at the plate,” Portese said. “That’s all you have when you’re tired. That’s all you have left is technique and fundamentals. The key today was the kids standing behind one another. When a kid made an error, or had a bad at-bat or had a bad swing, the other girls were picking her up.”

Olmos was 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs for Liberty. Seumalo started and allowed three runs on five hits. Alvarez allowed one run on five hits in four innings of relief to get the win.

Basia Query was 3-for-4 with two runs for the Cougars.

Liberty 5, Foothill 3 — Alvarez went 2-for-4 with a run to lead the Patriots over the Falcons in an elimination game.

Cali Christopher was 2-for-3 with a run scored. Seumalo scattered six hits and allowed just two runs over five innings to get the win.

Foothill’s Alexia Campbell was 3-for-4 with a double and a run. Jazmine Dukes and Haleigh Olive each had a home run for the Falcons (25-10).