Liberty rallies to top Spring Valley in Desert Region tourney
With his team trailing 6-0 after four innings Monday, Liberty baseball coach Rich Ebarb asked his players for a “little victory.”
Instead, he got a big one.
Behind multiple clutch at-bats and the arm of reliever Garrett Maloney, the Patriots rallied for nine runs in the fifth and went on to beat Spring Valley 9-6 in the opening round of the Class 4A Desert Region tournament at Liberty.
Liberty (21-8-1) will visit Basic (25-4-1) at 4 p.m. Tuesday in a winners’ bracket semifinal, and the Grizzlies (14-15) will host Coronado (18-15) in an elimination game at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“We basically lost the first four innings,” Ebarb said. “We talked in the dugout, and I said, ‘Let’s win this inning and get a little victory.’ Then they put up a nine-spot.”
The Patriots sent 14 batters to the plate in the fifth, chasing Grizzlies starter Braxton Bruschke while collecting five hits and benefitting from four walks, two hit batsmen and two Spring Valley errors. A sharp RBI single up the middle by Mason Bowden gave Liberty its first lead at 7-6, and teammate Zanden Shim made it 9-6 with a two-run single.
“Our hitters just stayed within their at-bats, and then handed it to the next guy,” Ebarb said. “They came up big when they needed to.”
Bruschke was dominant in holding the Patriots hitless for three innings. But the right-hander struggled to find the strike zone in the fifth, and Liberty pounced. Grizzlies reliever Ryan Steinhauer gave up three more runs.
Maloney, meanwhile, came on to relieve in the top of the fifth with his team trailing by six. By the time he took the mound for a second inning of work, he was overpowering in protecting his team’s three-run lead.
“I knew if I came in with authority, I could help switch momentum for our team,” said Maloney, who did not give up a hit. “If you do your job, that’s what happens. And once we put up nine, I wasn’t concerned.”
Though his team committed a season-high seven errors in the game, Ebarb focused on Maloney’s performance.
“He was able to locate his fastball, and he got ahead in the count,” Ebarb said. “It helped that his off-speed pitch was working.”
Kade Higgins went 2-for-5 with a double and a triple to lead Spring Valley, which scored three runs in the first inning and another in the second. Teammate Cesar Perez went 2-for-3.
Dylan San Nicolas went 3-for-4 with a double and two fifth-inning RBIs to help Liberty.
