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GRIZZLY-BENGAL TOURNEY: No. 2 Liberty erupts in tourney

Josh McCollum tossed his bat and watched his deep drive to left field in the fifth inning before he started running on the way to a stand-up double.

After all the damage Liberty’s baseball team did Monday with its bats, McCollum had to admire one.

The visiting Patriots roughed up three Spring Valley pitchers for 15 hits — with hardly a blooper in the bunch — and rolled to a 15-4 victory in six innings at the Grizzly-Bengal Spring Break Invitational.

Combined with a 17-1 five-inning victory over Legacy earlier in the afternoon, No. 2 Liberty (18-2) racked up 29 hits and outscored its two opponents 32-5 on the opening day of the three-day event. The Patriots continue the round-robin tournament at 9 a.m. today against Palo Verde at Spring Valley.

“For us it’s just repetition,” Liberty coach Nick Didier said. “I don’t care who we play, just as long as we see live pitching and get good at-bats. This tournament’s done the job for us, and I like this tournament. It’s good to us.”

Jay Martz went 4-for-5 with three doubles and three RBIs against the Grizzlies (10-9), and McCollum finished 3-for-5 with a double, a triple and two RBIs. Liberty sent 11 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring seven runs, and also batted around in the sixth.

Martz smoked a two-run double to left-center field in the third to put the Patriots up 5-1, and Brandon Soratos added a bases-clearing double to right-center that made it 9-1. In the sixth, McCollum, Jesse Keiser and Ethan Ibarra had run-scoring singles for Liberty, and Martz ripped an RBI double to cap the four-run inning.

Keiser and Soratos each finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs as Liberty reached double digits in runs for the sixth consecutive game.

“We’ve been trying to work on our hitting, work on our discipline,” Didier said. “I think we have good discipline at the plate right now, and we’ve just been hitting some fastballs. … We have good hitters in our lineup, but hopefully they all continue hitting the ball right now.”

Spring Valley scored a run in the third inning without a hit and tagged Martz for three runs in the fourth. Zane Drachler and Michael White had run-scoring singles, and Martz issued a two-out, bases-loaded walk to Cody Watkins to make it 9-4 before he worked out of the jam.

“We threw a lot of strikes, and we played defense,” Didier said. “We always preach if we can play catch better than the other team we have a good chance to win the game.”

Spring Valley 8, Legacy 7 — At Spring Valley, Jaxson Otis’ squeeze bunt and a throwing error brought home the tying and winning runs with one out in the bottom of the 11th as the Grizzlies edged the Longhorns.

Legacy took a 7-6 lead with a run in the top of the 11th, but the Grizzlies started a one-out rally in the bottom of the inning behind a single by Jake Sellinger and a walk to Zane Drachler.

After a passed ball moved the runners to second and third, Otis laid down a squeeze bunt to plate Sellinger. The throw to first was wild, allowing Drachler to score the winning run.

Michael Macove was 3-for-5 with two doubles, a triple and two RBIs, and Sellinger and Alex Gomez each doubled and singled for Spring Valley.

Garrett Christiansen was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs, and Hayden LeCates was 2-for-6 with a double and an RBI for Legacy.

Bonanza 7, Palo Verde 6 — At Bonanza, Keith Werner’s one-out single in the bottom of the sixth inning Monday scored Alec Taft with the go-ahead run to lift the Bengals by the Panthers.

Bonanza trailed 6-5 entering the bottom of the sixth, but singles by Casey Ladeira and Taft produced the tying run, and Taft moved to second when his hit was mishandled in the outfield. Werner followed with the go-ahead hit.

Hunter Junge was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs, and Andre Isaraq was 2-for-3 for the Bengals, who also got two hits from Taft.

Colin Janison had three hits, including two doubles, and Michael Spada had two doubles for Palo Verde, which also got two hits from J.D. Brooks.

Liberty 17, Legacy 1 — At Spring Valley, Dan Skelly went 2-for-2 with a double and three RBIs, and Josh McCollum was 2-for-2 with a double, three runs and two RBIs as the Patriots routed the Longhorns in five innings.

Ethan Ibarra was 2-for-3 with three RBIs for Liberty.

Jake DiGregorio and Joey Kulla combined on a one-hitter for Liberty.

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