Fort ousted by Liberty

FORT DEFIANACE - Liberty-Bedford’s Brooke Davis threw a one-hitter to defeat the Indians 1-0 in a defensive nail bitter.
“We just went out there to have fun,” Davis said “I just played hard and so did the team. “I was a little nervous, but I wanted to win. I’m very excited.”
Tuesday’s win sent Liberty to the Region III semifinals for the first time in school history.
“I’m speechless,” said Minutemen coach Sherry Storey watching her team race to the pitchers circle to celebrate. “That’s all I can say. It was a good defensive game. Fort fought hard, they are a good team.”
Indian pitcher Jessica Hogle (13-5) struck out eight and lived on the edge in the fifth inning. The Minutemen had a runner in scoring position, but Hogle left the inning unscathed. Fort played with one senior this season (17-5, 10-0 Southern Valley).
The Indians relied on playing fundamental ball this season, but an error on a fly ball hit by Hannah Martin at the top of the seventh with gave the Minutemen their one-run lead.
“We beat some pretty good teams,” Indian coach Max Hill said. “And this is not the right time not to be a good team. This is a first time for many of them to be in the playoffs. Hopefully they have learned after playing in the playoffs.”
The Minutemen started the season 10-0 , but lost their swagger in the middle of the regular season.
“I thought we were well on our way, since we started off so well,” Storey said. “After that, we lost six or seven games and it felt like the rug was taken out from under us.”
Compared to the Indians, the Minutemen were stacked with experienced players.
“We have about seven seniors this year,” said Storey. “That experience has helped us.”
“We know this is our last year, so many of the seniors just wanted to have fun this season,” Stephanie Chambers said. “But just because we won, doesn’t mean that we can relax. It’s going to be tough whoever we play against.”
Storey said that the team is going to take the rest of the postseason one game at a time.
“We are going to take it game by game,” said Storey. “I’m excited about what we accomplished this season.”