State’s top-ranked school excels

Shelby Dickerson slides to field a grounder and flips to shortstop Brianna Nelson for the out. PHOTOS BY BRIAN BESCH

By Brian Besch
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Lady Lion softball competed with the best in Class 3A Thursday, coming up on the short end of a 12-0 score to Liberty.

Already down two, Livingston threatened in first inning with runners on corners and two outs, but Liberty pitcher Brookelyn Taylor worked out of that jam. The Lady Panther defense was also good all afternoon, taking away most everything put into play.

The Liberty offense was dangerous as always, but Livingston did its best to limit the damage in each inning. The Lady Panthers got two RBI-singles in the first inning, a solo home run and second run on a wild pitch in the third, a two-RBI single and two RBI-doubles in the fourth, making it 8-0 at that point.

They would add a run in the fifth and three more in the seventh. Kylee Bishop, Hollie Thomas and Bayleigh Taylor, who bat 2-3-4 in the lineup, were a combined 11-for-15 with eight RBIs.

Despite the offensive output, Livingston played well in the field at times. Corinne Henderson, Brianna Nelson and Brianna Burks each made plays defensively.

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Top marks

“When they hit balls to us, we made plays,” Livingston coach Heather Mosser said. “We hit the ball, but we just didn’t string anything together. They are a good squad and they have good hitters from top to bottom. We were able to keep them off balance a little bit to not get run ruled and that is kind of what we were hoping to do. At the end of the day, that is a win for us. If we can throw them off a little more with our pitching and string something together, I am hoping to score a couple of runs on them next time.”

Liberty is on a streak of 22 consecutive wins since the first game of the year. They dropped the season opener to Barbers Hill, but now hold a 22-1 mark and No. 1 ranking. Highlights along the way have been an undefeated run at a tournament in The Woodlands facing Class 6A competition, and doing the same in brackets at Brenham versus 5A schools. They are the state champions of 2018, 2021 and 2022. Last season, Liberty reached the state championship game.

“We talk about good things after our games and we still had good things to say,” Mosser said. “That is all you can ask for out of a team. They said that (Shelby) Dickerson had a good day at the plate, when balls were hit to our defense we made plays, we had great catches, and they lead our postgame talk with positives. Sometimes in years past, we come in and we are a little scared of (Liberty), but we were very comfortable today and we didn’t let them overtake us. They didn’t have any major outstanding innings, and they are very capable of scoring 15 runs in an inning. Just to keep them at bay and settled a little bit, we did a good job.”

The Lady Lions are now 2-1 in district, and enjoyed a 28-0 walloping of West Fork in their second contest.

“We were just ripping the ball,” Mosser said of the win.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t do that as much today, but (West Fork) are a young team of freshmen and sophomores. They couldn’t really make plays and we were ripping the ball. We were feeling it and hitting well and playing well, and I was hoping that would carry over. It did, we still had a good performance against a really good team, but this (Liberty) team is going to go really far. Even though we lost today, I feel like we gained confidence.”