Liberty center fielder Mikayla Ruppert hit a grand slam during the fourth inning in the Hurricanes’ 7-0 victory over Nazareth in an East Penn Conference softball playoff game on Monday at Nazareth.

The Blue Eagles were the top seed in the EPC tournament while the Hurricanes were the eighth seed.

Freedom, the sixth seed, lost to third-seeded Easton, 6-4, in their EPC playoff game on Friday at Easton.

“They’re really bummed, so we’re giving them off the weekend and telling them they can’t touch a softball, and to just kind of reset themselves to come back,” said Freedom coach Nora Lorady. “In playoffs you cannot make defensive errors. That’s the bottom line.”

The Patriots had three errors but even 11 hits could not produce a win for Freedom.

“We can hit her. We proved it,” said Coach Lorady, regarding Easton pitcher AJ Bryfogle. “We had an awesome practice yesterday. We slammed balls at them, and we fielded great, but when we make errors on the field, we freeze.

“It’s a part of being young. My positive thing from that is Brenna [Ortwein] missed a fly ball out there, and instead of carrying it over into her at bat, she had a nice hit up the middle, and that’s a victory to me.”

The Red Rovers were up 4-0 going into the top of the fifth inning when Maddie Sheffer led off with a double.

“The first one was an outside pitch. We’ve really been working on that at practice, taking it to right center field and I was able to do that. I was telling myself wait for the outside, don’t pull it, get a nice hit, and we’ll get the team going,” Sheffer said.

Matison Pirapavel had an RBI single to make the score 4-1, but Easton scored two more runs in the fifth inning.

Ortwein started the sixth inning for the Patriots with a line drive, Julia Roman had a base hit that took a bounce off Easton’s shortstop, Taylor Resetar was safe at first on a fielder’s choice, and Sheffer’s second double of the day scored Freedom’s second run.

“That one was an inside pitch, so I just caught it out in front and turned my hips on it and drove it out there,” Sheffer said. “It felt good because we just needed a little push to get going and that was just the start of it.”

Pirapavel also had a double that scored two more runs for the Patriots.

Corrin Gill had a base hit for Freedom in the seventh inning but was left on third base.

This week, the Patriots will prepare for district playoffs which are scheduled to begin next week.

Liberty will have faced Bethlehem Catholic in an EPC semifinal on Tuesday, past Press deadlines. The EPC softball final is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Pates Park in Allentown.