Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Over the course of his coaching career Tom Cronk has been a part of plenty of senior night celebrations.

The celebration for the 13 Liberty High seniors on Monday had a little extra special meaning for Cronk and it came with a fitting finish.

Liberty High bounced back from a 10-2 loss in the opener to hand Class 4A No. 5 Dubuque Hempstead (9-1) its first loss of the season 9-5 in the nightcap of a Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division doubleheader in North Liberty.

The win in the nightcap moved the Lightning to 6-4 on the season and came after Liberty High honored its first full senior class between games.

“This group of seniors has been every bit of Liberty baseball for the past four years,” Cronk said. “I can’t tell you how important it is to have a good group when you are starting a program and they have done everything I have asked from day one. They continue to work and they are just good baseball kids and we wouldn’t be where we are without every one of them.”

The senior day salute was special for all 13 of the Liberty High seniors which started the program four years ago by playing a freshman schedule.

A win over a previously unbeaten, top-five ranked team on senior night was the perfect culmination of a four-year stretch that included playing home games at Penn Meadow Park and Mount Mercy College.

“It feels better than any other win honestly,” Liberty High senior Jacob Norris said. “Especially against the team we played and to do it here on our home field. They are a good team and I think this shows we can compete with anyone.”

Dubuque Hempstead scored three runs in the first inning of the opener and led 10-0 before Liberty High got on the board in the sixth.

The game one loss was the first live action for Liberty High since June 25 after it had three consecutive schedule doubleheaders cancelled over coronavirus concerns.

“It’s tough because baseball is all about routine and when you get out of that routine you have to stay motivated, come to practice every day with a goal to work toward something,” Liberty High senior Sam Funke. “It’s hard to come back and see live pitching for the first time, especially against that team, they have good arms on that team.”
Between games Liberty High paid tribute to its 13 seniors.

Then those seniors helped the Lightning snap a four-game losing skid in game two.

Seniors Funke, Norris, Alec Boldt and Tyler Dahm all had doubles as six of the nine Liberty High hits in the nightcap went for extra bases.

“We were a little rusty,” Norris said. “After the first game we feel back into place and had a good game.”

Hempstead plated two runs in the top of the first inning in game two but unlike the opener Liberty High had an immediate answer.

The first seven Liberty High batters reached base and came around to score in a seven-run first inning that flipped momentum to the home dugout.

“We didn’t want to do what we did the first game where they scored early and we just kind of shut down in a way,” Funke said. “We knew we had to get runs back and when we put that seven spot up everything changed.”

Funke came up with the big hit in the opening inning, a three-run, bases clearing double that gave the Lightning its first lead of the doubleheader at 3-2.

“In baseball one play can change a game,” Funke said. “To get up there and have a double and score some runs it gave us confidence as a team but also for myself.”

Norris and Boldt followed with RBI doubles and Dahm added an RBI single in the inning.

“I think the seven-run inning was the key to the second game,” Norris said. “That flipped it all.”

Hempstead cut the lead to 7-4 with a pair of runs in the third but Liberty High answered with single runs in the third and fourth.

“That’s what they do is they just battle all the way through,” Cronk said. “That’s what is so great about having them.”

Game 1

Dubuque Hempstead            302  131  0  –  10  11  1

Liberty High                         000  002  0  –   2    6   1 

W – Andrue Henry                 L – Jacob Norris

2B – DH: Zach Sabers, Andrue Henry, Trey Schaber (2)

3B – DH: Logan Runde

Game 2

Dubuque Hempstead            202  001  0  –  5  8  3

Liberty High                          701  100  x  –  9  9  0

W – Keian Secrist                   L – Brock Booth

2B – ICL: Sam Funke, Jacob Norris (2), Alec Boldt, TJ Kimm, Tyler Dahm

DH: Logan Runde, Devin Eudaley

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