When it came to playing Easton this season, Freedom’s softball team found itself in a continual series of falling to the Red Rovers no matter how hard they tried to win.

“It’s kind of, it’s really repetitive, you know. It’s just kind of repetitive,” said Freedom coach Nora Lorady. “You’ve got to beat who you’re going to play, and that’s it. They had our number four times.”

The fourth time was last Thursday when Easton won, 2-0, in a District XI Class 6A playoff game at Easton.

“We had like 13 days between games. It was so bad,” Lorady said. “And then we wanted to scrimmage Wilson, but because we didn’t have any bus drivers, and they didn’t either, we couldn’t scrimmage. We practiced, practiced, tried, but ...”

The only scoring last Thursday came in the first two innings, on a home run by AJ Bryfogle and doubles by Courtney Grundhauser and Gillian Walsh.

In the seventh inning, the Patriots almost did what they’ve done all year, which is come back to win late in a game.

Makenzie Smith and Julia Roman singled, but the Red Rovers turned a double play on a line drive by Maddy Sheffer. Matison Piripavel had a base hit, but it was the last hit for the Patriots.

“We did make contact,” said Lorady. “It just didn’t fall into place.”

Lorady also made some defensive changes for last Thursday’s game.

“Yeah, and that panned out. Makenzie did a really good job at third base, and Matison did a good job catching, and Brenna [Ortwein] did a good job at second, and [Gabby] Glick was kind of silent in right field, but you know, they can all play those positions, and sometimes it’s a good idea to give them a different look,” Lorady said.

“Overall, they did great. They’re so young. We had a freshman or a sophomore playing third, a freshman or a sophomore catching, two sophomores pitching, a freshman playing shortstop. They’re going to do great.”