Liberty sweeps past Bridge City 7-1

Leading 1-0 coming into Thursday night’s game two contest at Bridge City, the Liberty Lady Panthers took care of business and knocked off the Lady Cardinals 7-1 in their Bi-district series to advance to the Area Championship against Wharton. Jaylen Prichard started the game off in style by stroking a triple. Two hitters, later it was Mikaelah Burkland scoring Prichard to give Liberty a 1-0 lead. After Bridge City tied things up with a run in the bottom half of the first, the Lady Panthers took the lead for good in the third. Maci Beam reached on an error and then scored on a Kaci West double to make it 2-1. Liberty added a run in the fourth, and the advantage was 3-1 and then two more in the sixth. Bailee Slack singled and then scored on a Prichard double to make it a 4-1 game. Beam then scored Prichard, who reached on an error and the Lady Panthers were on their way to the next round with a 5-1 advantage. Hollie Thomas then doubled in the seventh inning to score Burkland and then came around on an error for some insurance for Liberty. West allowed just two hits in picking up the win on the mound for the Lady Panthers. The senior struck out 12. Slack and Prichard had two hits each for Liberty. The Lady Panthers will face Wharton in a best two-out-of-three series this weekend at Shadow Creek High School. Game one is set for 6 p.m. on Friday, while game two will be Saturday at 2 p.m. with a game three if necessary 30-minutes after game two.