By Bru Nimmons
Sports Editor
bnimmons@thepccourier.com

LIBERTY — Taking a 2-0 first inning lead over West-Oak on Friday night, the Liberty High School baseball team looked like it was on its way to picking up its second consecutive win.

Instead, unforced errors allowed the Warriors to recover quickly, and the Red Devils were unable to match them in the batter’s box, leading to a 9-2 loss.

“We’ve got young guys all over the field for us and they make great plays, but when you have young guys there are going to be growing pains,” Liberty head coach Trey Ulmer said. “We know these guys are going to be stud players and we’re going to keep working.”

The Devils looked great in the opening inning with starting pitcher Carson Garrick taking down the Warriors in order before Liberty went to work in the batter’s box. A one-out double from T.J. Borow and an Ethan Carroll walk put runners in scoring position, where Garrick was able to drive them home with a single to center field.

West-Oak quickly answered in the second inning taking advantage of errors, passed balls and wild pitches, as well as an RBI-single from Cole Dobbs to take a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the inning.

Liberty went down in order to end the second and West-Oak added even more insurance in the top of the third with a sacrifice fly from Eli Hayes. Liberty seemed like it might have an answer with back-to-back two out singles from Carroll and Garrick only for the inning to end on the basepaths with pinch runner Chase Smith getting caught stealing.

Things were quiet for both sides in the fourth, but West-Oak was able to add three more runs in the fourth on a sacrifice fly from Graham Campbell and a two-RBI single from Parker Gibson. The Warriors weren’t done there, with Grant Smith adding another two-RBI single in the sixth inning to give Liberty a 9-2 deficit.

The Red Devils found a little offense late with Daniel Belan drawing a walk and Jacob Melton picking up a two-out single. However, Liberty was unable to match the Warriors with Nolan Burgess drawing the game-ending ground out to give West-Oak a 9-2 victory.

The loss was the latest in a sting of ebbs and flows for the youthful Liberty baseball team which had run-ruled region 1-2A favorite Landrum the previous week followed by a loss to county rival Pickens. In spite of some of the early season struggles, Ulmer believes the Devils will be ready to bounce back.

“We have high hopes and high expectations for this group once we get through the ebbs and flows and start to figure some things out,” Ulmer said.