Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Through an 11-game losing skid in June Liberty High never waivered from its belief it belonged among the best teams in the state.

That mentality never shifted during a string of three consecutive substate wins capped by a victory over second-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie in the substate final.

It never shifted even after an early two-run deficit in the 4A state tournament opener against top-ranked Sioux City East.

And it certainly didn’t change trailing 6-3 entering the final inning.

Liberty High battled through all of those obstacles but came up just shy of the first state tournament win in program history falling to Sioux City East 6-5 in a 4A quarterfinal at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Tuesday night.

“That kind of summed up what our season has been,” Liberty High coach Uby Martinez said. “We gave up those two runs in the first and I think people started to get a little nervous and we weren’t worried, our guys weren’t worried. We knew we had to come a long way.”

Liberty High (26-17) was down to its final strike on several occasions in the top of the seventh inning but pushed top-seeded Sioux City East (41-2) to the limit in the loss.

The Lightning scored twice to cut the lead to 6-5 and had the tying run on second base in the top of the seventh when Sioux City East senior Bohdy Colling got Jordan Schroeder looking to end the game.

Sioux City East will face Pleasant Valley in the 4A semifinals on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

“That’s what we want Liberty baseball to be,” Martinez said. “When we step on to the field we want teams to start thinking that we are going to be scrappy, we are going to do things on the bases, we are going to be aggressive and we aren’t going to quit and that’s what we did.”

Sioux City East jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning but just as it has all season Liberty High battled back.

The Lightning pulled even with two runs in the third when Reece Rettig reached on an error and scored on a RBI double to left field by James O’Connor.

After a Evan Schmierer single O’Connor scored on a well-executed first and third play to tie the game at 2-2.

“I feel like we were just ready to attack more,” O’Connor said. “We were ready to jump on the fastball the second time through the order.”

Sioux City East took the lead back with two runs in the bottom of the inning and added two more in the fourth to take a 6-3 lead.

Liberty High wouldn’t go quietly.

Rettig singled with one out in the seventh and Schmierer followed with a two-out double to left center.

After a walk to Eric Strunk sophomore Drew Turgasen laced a two-run single to right center to cut the lead to 6-5.

“It just shows the fight and the confidence we have in our guys to keep battling,” O’Connor said. “We know we are always in the game we just keep battling.”

Schmierer was 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored in his final game in a Lightning uniform.

“I hope that there were a lot of Liberty kids watching and saying that’s how I want to play the game,” Martinez said of Schmierer. “You can’t teach his instincts and his drive and desire. He means a lot to us and he’s going to be a big loss for us but hopefully people see what he did and how he did it.”

While Schmierer, Rettig, Schroeder and Jaryn Sertterh headline the list of departing seniors for the Lightning much of the Liberty High firepower is set to return next season.

“This is the expectation now, we expect to be here,” O’Connor said. “This just helps to continue to set the standard for our program for the future not just for the varsity but for the younger guys too.”

Starter Alex Strunk allowed four runs, one earned, on four hits in three innings on Tuesday while Sertterh and juniors Lewis Waterbury and Adrian Clerry combined to allow two runs on two hits in three innings of relief.

Waterbury and Eric Strunk each had doubles while Pryor Reiners had a hit for the Lightning.

“I think we have a great shot next year and we are just going to keep battling,” Waterbury said. “This year we went through a rough patch and the seniors really stepped up and hopefully we will do that next year.”

Liberty High             002  100  2  –  5  9  2

Sioux City East          202  200  x  –  6  6  1

W – Kal Chamberlain                        L – Alex Strunk          SV – Bohdy Colling

2B – ICL: Lewis Waterbury, James O’Connor; Eric Strunk, Evan Schmierer

3B – SCE: Cal Jepsen

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