Liberty and Bethlehem Catholic’s softball teams met on March 24 when the Hurricanes shut out the Golden Hawks, 15-0, in five innings at Bethlehem Catholic.

“(Liberty pitcher) Addy Smith looked absolutely fantastic today,” said Hurricane coach Sam Carrodo. “First batter, she walked, and I think that made her mad, and she just started throwing strikes and did really well from there on in.”

Smith also contributed mightily to the Hurricane offense with 4 RBI, a double, a triple, and a first-pitch solo home run.

“I said from the beginning that all we need to do is hit,” Coach Carrodo said. “These kids have confidence, and if they believe in themselves, that’s all we need because we have pretty much everything else. We played well defensively, ran the bases really well, and we hit the ball aggressively.”

McKenna Beck blasted a 2-run home run to add to the Hurricanes’ dominance over their city rival.

“This really was a bounce back game for us,” said Liberty assistant coach Tom Kaleycik, referring to the Hurricanes’ season-opening loss to Whitehall. “We struggled offensively, not hitting and not making good contact. It took us quite a few innings to actually get a base runner. It did surprise me.

“To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect this year because we have a lot of new players, but we have a lot of experience to carry us, and I thought we’d do a little bit better. I think we took Whitehall a little lightly, and it came back to bite us. Today, we jumped on Beca early, and that was the difference.”

Also last week, Freedom beat Nazareth, 9-4.

Madison Bixler was the winning pitcher with 11 strikeouts.