Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – With Liberty High mired in the middle of 11-game losing streak last month senior infielder Evan Schmierer had a conversation with head coach Uby Martinez.

“We had that rough two-week stretch and I remember talking to Uby and I said, ‘I don’t give a damn if we are awful right now as long as we are good by July’,” Schmierer recalled.

Liberty High hasn’t just been good in July the Lightning have been fantastic.

In Wednesday’s Class 4A substate 7 championship the Lightning were nearly perfect.

Liberty High (26-16) hammered 15 hits, played errorless defense and got seven combined shutout innings from pitchers Jaryn Sertterh and Lewis Waterbury on its way to an emphatic 15-0 win over second-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie (32-7) on a steamy night in Cedar Rapids.

“You just have to trust the process, trust that it’s going to work when you get there and about two and half weeks ago they started trusting that process,” Martinez said. “They started being great teammates again and executing and got back to Liberty baseball. If we can’t swing it we will small ball you to death and today everything worked.”

After an 11-1 start to the season Liberty High went 18 days without a win in June.

The final two loses of that 11-game losing streak came in a double head sweep at the hands of Cedar Rapids Prairie in which the Hawks outscored Liberty High 21-2.

“We had that little rough stretch in the middle of the year but we just stuck to the process, trusted the process,” Sertterh said. “We kept trusting our coaches, trusting ourselves.”

Liberty High bounced back big time and is now headed back to the state tournament for the second consecutive season.

Sertterh threw 4 2/3 shutout innings allowing just three hits while striking out five on Wednesday.

Waterbury worked the final 2 1/3, surrendering just two hits while fanning three.

The shutout on Wednesday completed a stretch of 18 consecutive scoreless postseason innings for Liberty High.
Sertterh and Waterbury and combined for 14 scoreless innings while Alex Strunk threw a four-inning shutout in a semifinal win over Clinton on Monday.

“It’s amazing and it’s a testament to our guys,” Martinez said. “They faced a lot of great teams and we knew when we get to July we are going to have the guys to get us there and they had to believe it. They kept throwing their bullpens and they kept attacking in games, even games we didn’t’ win they did a really nice job and that’s a testament to their work ethic and just the belief in themselves.”

On Wednesday Liberty High provided plenty of offensive support for its pitchers.

Ten different Liberty High players had a hit on Wednesday as the Lightning snapped a six-game winning streak for Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Strunk had three hits and drove in two runs, Schmierer had two hits and drove in four runs and Waterbury and James O’Connor each had two hits.

“We feel like we can handle any team that comes our way if we keep trusting the process and keep trusting our coaching staff,” O’Connor said. “We know that whatever team is in front of us we are ready to conquer them.”

After a scoreless first inning Liberty High took control with four runs in the second off Prairie starter Tait Tierney.

Pryor Reiners reached on an error to start the four-run Liberty High second.

Following an infield hit by Waterbury courtesy runner Brady Leibold scored on a fielders choice ground ball by Pierce Beckman,

O’Connor gave Liberty High a 2-0 lead with an RBI single to center field and Schmierer broke the game open with a two-run triple to right field.

“I think what was big was just getting the bats going early and showing we could do this,” Schmierer said. “We’ve seen Tierney this year and we hit him well we just couldn’t drive guys in and that’s what we did today. We had big at bats in big moments.”

Liberty High broke the game open with four runs in the fourth inning all with two outs.

Strunk singled to center to score Reece Rettig and Drew Turgasen laced a single to left field to score Schmierer.

That was more than enough for Sertterh who left with two outs and a runner on first in the fifth.

The senior right-hander walked one and hit a batter while striking out five.

“I was throwing strikes and I was getting the change up in the strike zone today and they were struggling to hit that one,” Sertterh said. “It felt nice.”

Liberty High returns to the state tournament for the second consecutive season and fourth time in five seasons.

“Especially my senior year this is the best it’s ever felt,” Schmierer said. “Winning 15-0, it’s awesome to have that insurance.”

Liberty High             040  400  7  –   15  15  0

CR Prairie                 000  000  0  –     0   5   6

W – Jaryn Sertterh                             L – Tait Tierney

2B – ICL: James O’Connor, Pryor Reiners

3B – ICL: Evan Schmierer

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