Liberty Charter High School’s baseball and softball teams both earned the top seed in this year’s San Diego Section Division V playoffs. The Lady Lions advanced the farthest with a runner-up finish in the division championship game while the Alpine school’s hardballers fell just one win shy of advancing to the division title game.
LADIES FIRST
Liberty Charter (19-5 overall) ended regular season play with a 25-1 victory at Ocean View Christian on May 10 to wrap up a runner-up finish in Summit League softball play with a 4-2 league mark. Freshman Layla Montgomery led the Lady Lions with five RBI in the game while sophomore Ava Lansford and junior Kylie Pruett both collected three RBI and senior Kiana Anderson had two RBI.
Pruett and sophomore Leah Urias combined on a three-hitter in the pitching circle. Pruett stole three bases in the lopsided win.
Liberty Charter received a bye to start the playoff tournament. The Lady Lions proved up to the initial challenge in their first game with a 9-1 victory against eighth-seeded Francis Parker to open the double- elimination portion of the tournament. Sophomore Hazel Sandoval and Montgomery both had two RBI in the postseason victory while sophomore Leah Urias spun a three-hitter with three strikeouts. The hosts slammed four doubles in the game — one each by Montgomery, sophomore Julia Peterson, Pruett and Lansford.
The Lady Lions defeated fifthseeded Chula Vista Learning Community Charter, 20-6, in their next game to draw a semifinal rematch against Francis Parker, which they won 15-8.
Pruett and Montgomery both recorded three RBI in the win over CVLCC while junior Addison Zierman, Lansford and Anderson all contributed two RBI to the winning cause.
Peterson had five RBI while Urias had two triples in the semifinal victory.
Liberty Charter’s playoff winning streak ended there, however, following a 12-2 loss to thirdseeded Coastal Academy, the 2023 Pacific League champions, in the championship game.
Peterson led the Lady Lions on the season with a 0.581 hitting average to go with 36 runs scored, 36 RBI and seven triples. Montgomery hit 0.543 with 46 runs scored and 30 RBI.
Pruett batted 0.514 with 41 runs scored and 30 RBI while freshman Kaiya McKay hit 0.432 with 25 runs scored and 20 RBI. Sophomore Samantha McHenry posted a 0.429 batting average with 33 runs scored and 25 RBI.
Liberty Charter scored 234 runs in 24 games as the team recorded a 0.419 hitting average, 33 doubles, 25 triples and three home runs.
Among the heavy hitters, Urias batted 0.382 with 32 runs and 22 RBI while Anderson (0.375) scored 29 runs and drove in 16 runs.
Pruett logged a 2.13 earned run average in 17 game appearances while Urias recorded a 2,82 ERA in 18 games to lead the team’s pitching staff.
Urias notched 103 strikeouts in 67 innings while Pruett fanned 59 batters in 49.1 innings.
GOING YARD
The Lions baseball team (17- 5 overall) finished 9-1 in Summit League play to edge High Tech High Chula Vista (8-2 in league, 12-10-1 overall) for this year’s championship banner. Mountain Empire finished 5-5 in league play for third place in the six-team league standings. Other Summit League members included CVLCC (4-5-1 in league, 5-9-1 overall), Ocean View Christian Academy (3-7- 1 in league, 8-7-1 overall) and Bayfront Charter (1-9 in league, 3-12 overall).
Liberty Charter ended regular season play with a six-game winning streak, including a 14- 0 win over Ocean View Christian Academy on May 12. Junior Jaxon Adrain keyed the Lions in that final regular season game with two home runs and four RBI while striking out 11 batters and allowing one hit in five innings to pick up the win on the mound.
The Lions made a statement by posting a 4-0 showing their division at April’s San Diego Lions tournament, the oldest and most prestigious high school baseball tournament in the section.
Liberty Charter made a statement with a 7-6 win over ninthseeded Army-Navy Academy on May 17 to open the double-elimination playoffs.
The top-seeded Lions erased a 5-3 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Sophomore Brody Harris led the hosts with three RBI while sophomore Drake Keehl, senior Nathan Bott and sophomore Andruw Godinez each drove in one run.
But fourth-seeded St. Joseph Academy would prove to be a roadblock to Liberty Charter’s championship aspirations. The Crusaders stalled the Lions’ advancement through the winner’s bracket with a 7-4 win in second round play on May 19 despite four RBI from Keehl.
Liberty Charter averted early elimination with a 2-1 win over fifth-seeded Calvin Christian in third round play on May 20 as Harris and Adrain (home run) both collected RBI in the must win scenario. Bott struck out five and allowed three hits in a complete game victory.
The win over Calvin Christian set up a rematch game St. Joseph Academy on May 23 that the Lions won, 1-0, as Harris (double) scored the game-winning run and Adrain pitched a no-hitter with 12 strikeouts while facing one batter over the minimum.
Liberty Charter remained in contention for the division championship but so did St. Joseph, as a double-elimination replay was required to settle which team advanced to the division final on May 27.
The double-elimination game was played on May 25 – the Lions’ fifth game in 10 days – and the outcome did not favor the reigning Summit League champions as St. Joseph (12-8) won 5-0 as Liberty Charter was held to four hits and committed three errors in the game. Sophomore Sam Romero struck out eight Lions in six innings to push the Crusaders to the championship game match-up against thirdseeded Lincoln.
Lincoln won, 7-2, to capture the division title.
Bott led the Lions on the season with a 0.404 hitting average in 18 games with 23 runs scored, seven RBI and three doubles. Adrain followed a tick behind at 0.403 in 20 games with 33 runs scored, 19 RBI and four home runs.
Harris batted 0.386 in 20 games with 25 runs scored, 28 RBI, eight doubles and five triples while Keehl batted 0.364 in 20 games with 14 runs scored, 20 RBI.
Godinez hit 0.358 in 20 games with 13 runs scored, 19 RBI and nine doubles while senior Josh Hyler batted 0.356 with 22 runs scored and 14 RBI.
Adrain cobbled together an 8-0 record with a 1.21 earned run average in 11 pitching appearances. He struck out 71 batters in 46.1 innings.
Bott finished 3-3 on the hill with a 2.28 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 30.2 innings while Godinez went 2-0 with three saves, a 3.50 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 20 innings.
