By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
After finishing as the district runner-up the last two seasons, the Liberal softball team wasn’t going to let Tuesday’s district championship game slip away.
The Bulldogs bided their time and then struck for four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to seal a 5-3 come-from-behind victory against visiting Lockwood in the Class 1 District 6 finals. Liberal, which advances to the playoffs for the first time since a third-place finish in 2018, will host Ash Grove on Tuesday in the quarterfinals.
“Finally got one,” Liberal head coach BJ Goodell said. “It’s been awhile. Last time we punched a ticket my assistant coach was our third baseman and we got the W in the districts and went ahead and got two more and got to the final four and that was fun. That’s kind of been what we’ve wanted to do. We made the trip in basketball and these girls have said they want to get back there in softball, as well. I think I have eight kids who played basketball that are in this group, too. It’s just a fun group.”
The Bulldogs (19-5) entered Tuesday having won 11 of 12 with five shutouts and eight wins by at least 10 runs in that span. Liberal had also defeated Lockwood twice earlier in the season. But the visiting Tigers gave the home team all it wanted.
Lockwood (13-11) loaded the bases in the first inning and took a 1-0 lead when Gracyn Clawson drew a full-count walk to force in Grace Wilson, who led off the game with a single.
Liberal tied it in the bottom half of the first, with Bailey Couch leading off with a triple to deep right-center field and then scoring on a groundout by Jordan Goodell.
Lockwood took a 2-1 lead in the third, after loading the bases with two walks and an error. Gracyn Clawson hit a grounder to third, but the throw home wasn’t in time to catch Kelsey Daniels.
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By the bottom of the fifth, with Liberal down to its final nine outs, the visitors held a 3-1 lead. But with one swing of the bat, Taylor Swarnes put a charge into the Bulldogs. The junior belted a pitch to center field for a solo home run to cut it to 3-2. Couch followed with a bunt single, and advanced to third on a throwing error. She scored on a line drive by Goodell to tie it. And Goodell, who advanced to third on a double by Kyla Porter, scored the go-ahead run on a single by Ava Garrett––with Porter following close behind her to make it 5-3.
“Taylor (Swarnes) didn’t have a very good at bat the first time up,” BJ Goodell said. “She was over there hitting some tee’s and the next time she came up she got a charge in that one. I laughed and said it’d be nice to have people on when she did it, but it gave us the juice we needed to get going that inning.”
“They’ve got big bats, and they had some good hits,” Lockwood coach Bobbi Abbiatti said. “We came and played and did the best we could and our girls fought back with our bats, but we didn’t get some of the hits we wanted.”
Lockwood almost forced a bottom of the seventh. In the top of the inning, Kelsey Daniels singled, Shae Gray reached on a fielder’s choice (everyone was safe) and then with two outs, Gracyn Clawson doubled over the center fielder to make it 5-4 and leave runners at second and third.
But Jordan Goodell, the Liberal pitcher, earned a full-count strikeout to end the game.
“These guys just fight and claw and keep going,” BJ Goodell said. “I knew when Lockwood won last night it was going to be a rough deal. We’ve played them twice; we had the upper hand the first two times but the first time was in the first tournament of the year, and the last time they were here we led most of the game and then in the seventh inning they came back and got up a run and we came back and walked it off in the seventh. We knew it was going to be a battle. Their freshman pitcher did a great job, a lefty there.”
Couch and Porter each collected two hits for Liberal––including a triple and a double, respectively. Ava Garrett drove in two runs, and Couch scored twice.
In the circle, Goodell allowed three hits in her six innings and struck out five. She reached 500 career strikeouts in the effort, and was honored after the game.
“She would probably argue she didn’t have her best stuff today, but that’s what she’s done for us this year is good stuff or not, compete, battle and find a way to get the job done,” Goodell said. “She was struggling early and just couldn’t find her way. A lot of walks. She kind of did the same thing last night. It was tough, back-to-back nights, a lot of pitches, but she found a way to battle and compete and get the job done. Couldn’t be prouder of her. Definitely as a coach but also as a mom. It’s pretty cool. You’re wrapped up in the game and you don’t get to look at it until it all settles in and it hits you like man, that was a pretty cool deal and my kid just had a good game.”
Lockwood’s starter, Kallie Griffin, struck out seven and allowed two earned runs in five innings.
“I thought they played hard,” Abbiatti said. “They fought to the end. That’s something we’ve been working on is not quitting midway when we get down, to keep fighting to the end, and they did that. Our seniors gave everything they had and I was proud of all of them.”
