By Greg Farrar
Madison O’Connor (left), Liberty High School sophomore catcher, gets Bainbridge baserunner Riley Gregoire out at home plate in the fourth inning on a bases-loaded single, during their 3A state tournament game May 30 in Lacey.

The Liberty High School fastpitch team’s postseason magic came to an end May 30 after two straight losses in the 3A state tournament at Lacey’s Regional Athletic Complex.

Liberty was dealt the toughest possible opening-round game when they were matched up with Kamiakin, winners of the previous two state championships. The Braves went on to make it three in a row before the weekend finished.

The Patriots fell to Kamiakin, 12-6. Despite the loss, Liberty’s offense was the Braves’ only tournament opponent to score more than three runs against the champions. Liberty senior Liza VanCamp led Liberty hitters, going 3-4 with two runs and an RBI.

“We came out against the two-time defenders and didn’t give up the whole time,” second-year Liberty coach Zach Bartholomew said. “We weren’t that far back. That’s a tough first game no matter who you are.”

Liberty was back in the state tournament after missing out a year ago. The Patriots emerged from the KingCo tournament, something they couldn’t do last year, and proceeded to clinch the fifth and final state berth in the SeaKing District Tournament May 21-22.

“I’m just trying to get back to where the program should and used to be,” Bartholomew said. “It’s always kind of been the same story. They’re not always the most talented group, but nobody ever wants to play us because we’ll jump up and beat anybody at anytime.”

Liberty’s season came to an end though, May 30, after it lost to Bainbridge, 5-0, in the double-elimination state tournament. A little more than a week earlier, the Patriots narrowly lost to Bainbridge, 13-12, in the SeaKing District Tournament.

His girls struggled to adjust to a slower pitcher, Bartholomew said. The Liberty offense mustered just three hits off of Bainbridge pitcher Alison Reichert.

It was the last game for a special group of seniors that included VanCamp, third baseman Olivia Kutzke, outfielder Jenny Walker, second baseman Ashley Knox and outfielder Breanna Olsen.

“This group of seniors, they are great leaders,” Bartholomew said. “They don’t yell and scream at people, they lead by example, they’ll do anything for you on the field and off the field, which to me, there’s nothing better than that.”

This year’s team embodied some of the old-school toughness that defined past Liberty squads, Bartholomew said. It’s why, as soon as they earned the state berth, the team sent out orders for T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Liberty Tough.”

“That’s what our coaches have been telling us. We’re swift and scrappy like we were back when Liberty baseball won the championship and Liberty softball was at the top,” Kutzke said.

The coach knows exactly what “Liberty Tough” means. Bartholomew graduated from Liberty, where he won a 3A state baseball championship in 2003.

“This group of kids and these seniors are just amazing,” he said. “It’s the whole reason that I came back here, and I love it.”

Hazen’s season ends at sub-districts

The Hazen High School softball team finished the regular season with a 14-6 record, just behind league champion Kennedy Catholic, according to the Seamount Athletics website.

The Highlanders’ performance earned them a spot in the sub-district playoffs, where teams from the South Puget Sound League face off against Seamount teams.

Their season ended May 15, after a 14-4 loss to Bonney Lake.

The March 28 win against the Totems didn’t feel like much of an achievement for the Liberty coaches and players, though.

By Greg Farrar
Miranda Bukantz, Liberty High School catcher, grins as she prepares to put out Haley Newton, of Sammamish, on a double play, to retire the side March 28 during the third inning of the Patriots’ 3-1 win over the Totems.

“We won, but we really didn’t win,” first-year Liberty coach Zach Bartholomew said. “Mentally, it was a disaster and to play in this league, you’ve got to be better than that.”

The Liberty softball program has had a lot of success through the years, making several state tournament appearances, including a ninth-place finish last year. As a result, the Liberty coaches and players hold themselves to a higher standard.

That’s why the mental miscues, including missed signs and poor pitch selection, were so frustrating for the Liberty head coach.

“We can come out and hit with the best of them, we can throw with the best of them, we’ve just got to get the mental side of the game to be perfect,” Bartholomew said.

One Liberty player that showed a great deal of mental fortitude was sophomore pitcher Sydney Hopper, Bartholomew said. Hopper held Sammamish to one run in seven innings, allowing just three hits with eight strikeouts.

“When I talk about mental toughness, she is what we want everybody else to be,” Bartholomew said. “It doesn’t matter what’s going on around her, she’s going to do everything she can. She’s going to throw her heart out, and from a sophomore, you can’t ask for more.”

While Hopper continued to throw strikes from the mound, the Liberty offense struggled to string hits together. After five innings, the game was tied, 1-1.

The Patriots were able to muster just enough offense in the sixth inning, scoring two runs. Olivia Kutzke drove in one with an RBI single and Ashley Knox drove in the other with a sacrifice fly to right field.

The Liberty offense has all the potential to be explosive, Bartholomew said. Just a week before, the Patriots collected 22 hits against a tough Inglemoor team. The Liberty hitters struggled to adjust to Sammamish’s pitcher.

“It goes to the mental focus,” he said. “You’ve got a slower pitcher out there today, so you’ve got to adjust. You’ve got to sit back and be able to hit line drives and we couldn’t do it. We just managed to splint together some runs.”

The coaches weren’t the only ones disappointed by the performance. The Liberty players know they need to step up their performance as well.

“We all know we’re capable of playing much better than we did, and we just made some mistakes,” Hopper said. “It’s early in the season, but we’re going to pick it up a little bit next game.”

Liberty was without a key performer in all-league third baseman Liza Van Camp, who injured her ankle in a previous game. Van Camp was expected to return to the diamond the first week of April.

Everett starting pitcher Lexi Levin took control after that, surrendering only one run in the top of the fourth on a steal of home.

Although the quick exit from the state tournament was not what Liberty had in mind, head coach Brian Hartman said he knows that the return of Liberty to the state tournament is a return to normalcy.

“It’s a big deal,” Hartman said. “The program’s kind of back where it belongs. I think we’re about ready to start another streak here. We had a 12-year run here. It’s fun seeing everyone here. It means you’re back playing with the elite. You’re one of the top programs in the state and that’s where we expect to be.”

Hartman said he thinks the several-year layoff and relative post-season inexperience was evident in his young team.

“I saw a team that hadn’t been to the state tournament in a few years,” he said. “They looked a little bit nervous to start the game, we made a few errors, definitely wasn’t our best game of the year. But we had a chance to beat a team that was 21-1. Like I told a few other people, I’m the happiest coach in the world to be here. There are a few other teams sitting at home right now that aren’t here. I’m proud of them. I’m disappointed that we lost, but Everett’s a great team.”

Hartman said he knew his team had some opportunities, but just weren’t able to string enough hits together off Levin.

“She had multiple pitches,” he said. “She had a rise ball, a drop ball, she was moving it in and off the plate. It was tough to establish what was going to be a strike and what wasn’t going to be a strike. And we had a number of opportunities with people on base. We just couldn’t get them in.”

One Patriot who didn’t have a hard time with Levin was junior catcher Miranda Bukantz, who went 3-3 with two doubles, one of which led to her courtesy runner coming around to score the lone Liberty run.

“When I get up there, I have to know I’m better than the pitcher,” Bukantz said. “I’m going up to get a hit. In state, I just want to leave it all on the field. But it’s all mental. I just have to get up and be ready to hit, and know that I’m going to get a hit every single time that I do.”

Bukantz also threw out one of the fastest base stealers in the state, Keilanna Harper, who has signed to play with the University of Washington next season.

The other defensive highlight from the game was a diving catch from center fielder Ana Faoro who robbed Everett’s Demaree Trull of a base hit.

“A lot of people will practice diving, but it’s not really something you can practice,” Faoro said. “It’s just something you kind of have to do in the moment. It’s just something that happened.”

Trull hit a sinking line drive that Faoro had to break for right away.

“It was a little tough to judge,” she said. “If I judged it a little better I might have been able to get it in the air. But if you have to dive you got to do it to get it.”

Faoro also had a single to left field, which turned into a bit of a circus play when she found herself at third.

“I always like hitting it down the left field line, and then the overthrow was just a happy turn of events,” she said. “I didn’t realize how bad of an overthrow it was, so I had to hustle down to third.”

Reflecting on the changes implemented by Hartman, third baseman Liza VanCamp was happy about how the team bonded together this year.

“He’s awesome. He keeps the intensity up every practice, every game,” she said. “Really strives for winning, and just doing our best. Last year, our team wasn’t that close but this year, we’re like really, really close with each other.”

Bukantz couldn’t agree more.

“We’ve had so much fun,” she said. “He’s so much more aggressive, and he brings everything to the table, on the field. Off the field, he’s an intense coach. He has these personal conferences, like self check-ups to see what you can work on. It’s great.”

Starting pitcher Sydney Hopper, a freshman who only gave up three earned runs in the contest, said she was glad she could get her team to state.

“I really wanted to do it for my teammates,” Hopper said. “Especially the seniors, since it’s their last year and they’ve never been before. It was a big motivation to get here all year. It’s really great.”

Hopper thinks the future of Liberty softball is right where it should be.

“We’re losing some really great seniors,” she said. “But we have some really great returners. Our catcher’s really great. She’s going to be a great leader next year, so I think we’re going to have a good chance.”

At the 3A state softball tournament, Liberty High School showed up. That was enough for head coach Brian Hartman.“We knew it was a huge accomplishment to get to the state tournament again,” he said. “We had overachieved by getting there.”

Liberty went 1-2 at the tournament, ending a rollercoaster season for the Patriots.

During the regular season, Liberty tied with Skyline for third in 3A KingCo. The Patriots had a 10-6 league record, and nearly missed the state tournament when they lost back-to-back games in the KingCo championships – 10-0 to Issaquah and 7-5 to Skyline.

But wins against Eastside Catholic, Holy Names and Skyline in the Sea-King 3A District tournament May 15-16 earned Liberty a berth in the state playoffs at SERA fields in Tacoma.

Then, the Patriots unleashed an offensive display against Enumclaw to win 15-5 in their first-round game May 23.

“We just came out swinging the bats well, very relaxed,” Hartman said.

Five Liberty batters connected for two or more hits against Enumclaw, including junior Montessa Califano, who went 3-for-4 at the plate. Her sister Aris Califano, a sophomore, went 2-for-4 and recorded two stolen bases.

Later the same day, Liberty fell to Everett 0-8 and Bainbridge 0-11.

“We knew we weren’t going to win the thing,” Hartman said. “Our goal was just to play as hard as we could and enjoy our time together. There was nothing disappointing to me about it.”

Liberty’s postseason hopes were hampered by starting pitcher Bree Bartholomew’s unfortunate case of elbow tendonitis, which flared up in mid-April.

“She would have been as good as anyone in KingCo,” Hartman said.

The Liberty ace plans to pitch next year at the college level for Minot State University in Minot, N.D.
In light of Bartholomew’s injury, the Patriots then had to shuffle their defensive positions, switching catcher Jesi Siemons to pitcher.

Siemons, a senior, started all three games at the state tournament, logging in 18 consecutive innings before Hartman relieved her. Before Bartholomew’s injury, Siemons had not pitched a Liberty game since her freshman season.

“She’s as tough and as gritty a player as any I’ve ever coached,” Hartman said.