Even though the Liberty Hurricanes lost to Parkland in the District XI softball semifinal last week at Pates Park, Liberty coach Sam Carrodo could not have been much more satisfied with the Hurricanes' season.

"We all knew what we had. We just had to show people what we had," Carrodo said.

It is no secret that many on the outside believed the young team with only two returning starters would flounder, but that never happened. With a record of 18-4, the Hurricanes reached the EPC final, and with a record of 18-5 were the fourth seed in districts. Liberty's last two games of the season were lost to Parkland, the most recent by a score of 3-0.

"To lose a game like that, I'm not upset. We didn't want to lose, but if the score is 15-1, now I'm upset. We were right with them," said Carrodo.

It wasn't until the fourth inning that Shauna Frank scored on a grounder by Sam Pickar for the Trojans. Liberty came up in the fifth inning and had runners at first and third but could not score. Hurricane pitcher, Victoria Schmidt got out of the bottom of the fifth unscathed with the bases loaded with Trojans.

The Hurricanes missed out on another scoring opportunity in the sixth inning when Kristin Kaleycik walked, ultimately making her way to third base, but that's where she stayed.

In the bottom of the sixth, Parkland had runners on second and third with two outs. Emma Varrato came up to bat, fouling off pitch after pitch until Trojan fans erupted in cheers, and Varrato hit a single to the outfield, scoring Sydney Stibitz and Kyleigh Staudt.

Carrodo said, "We didn't hit the way we usually hit. We tried to force Parkland to come out of their strategy, but it didn't work. We had some errors, but I told them, relax and make the outs. We might bend, but we don't break."