HAMILTON, Ill. The Liberty Eagles shut down West Hancock in the Titans first baseball game of the season Thursday. <\/p>\n
Pitcher Jared Shover did not allow a hit until Kendall Summers two-out single in the bottom of the seventh to help Liberty defeat West Hancock 7-1 in the West Central Conference South Division contest. <\/p>\n
We have a veteran team, and we expect them to come out and play, said West Hancock Head Coach Lee Purchatzke. We knew this was a good team. We knew we had to beat them to win the conference. Its pretty disappointing. <\/p>\n
Liberty jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning with consecutive doubles by Tyler Ormond, Marc Rush and Lane Hanzel off West Hancock starting pitcher Paxton Harmon. The Eagles added a run in the second inning to make the score 3-0. <\/p>\n
(They hit) a couple of mistakes early, Purchatzke said. Theyre good hitters, and they put the bat on the ball. Leaving the ball up against a good team like that, theyre going to make you pay. After that first inning, Paxton got his breaking stuff going a little better and kept things a little more off-balanced. <\/p>\n
West Hancock threatened in the bottom of the first with one-out walks to Austin Hardy and Collin Dooley, but a double play ended the Titans inning. <\/p>\n
You give him credit, he pitched a great game. No doubt about that, but if this team is going to challenge for a regional, youre going to have to beat pitchers like that, Purchatzke said. Youre going to have to get them off the mound. Obviously, were not ready yet. <\/p>\n
Liberty put the game out of reach in the seventh inning, taking advantage of a two-out error that scored a run. Isaac Murfin followed with a three-run home run over the centerfield fence to make the score 7-0. <\/p>\n
We made a couple of plays defensively, but there were a couple of others we could have made that could have kept this a 2-0, 3-0 game, maybe, Purchatzke said. <\/p>\n
Shover had thrown 68 pitches through the first six innings, but the Titans made the senior right-hander work in the seventh inning. Harmon walked and Summers followed with a single up the middle on an 0-2 count. Harmon scored the lone run off a Liberty error on a ball hit by Coy Dorothy. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
See original here: HAMILTON, Ill. The Liberty Eagles shut down West Hancock in the Titans first baseball game of the season Thursday Continue reading
\nLiberty hands Titans loss in baseball season opener<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"