For the second time in two days, Liberty’s softball team won on a walk-off when McKenna Beck’s base hit sliced past the infield to score Ella Quayle and defeat city rival Freedom, 2-1, on April 10.

“This is what I was waiting for all day,” Beck said. “Everyone was pumped up for this game. Adrenaline, one out, runner on second, that’s like, movie. [Freedom pitcher Madison Bixler] was throwing a lot of high and changeups, and that’s what I struck out on earlier, so I knew what I was expecting, but I also had a game plan. Something over the plate, something middle inside because good pitchers can hit the corners, but everybody misses once in awhile. I was hoping that it was fast enough to get past the shortstop. I knew we won. Whoever was on second with that speed, I knew we won.”

Quayle led off with a walk, and Brooke Doncsecz’s sacrifice bunt moved Quayle to second base.

“I will say, Ella should have been at third, which would’ve made it an easier run to score because when we had the bunt, we knew the third baseman was gonna crash and third base would be open,” said Liberty coach Tom Kaleycik. “She didn’t come over and stayed at second. It was OK. It all worked out, but the plan was to get her over to third on that play, and then we have options.”

Quayle made up for it with a big lead at second in anticipation of any hit.

“As soon as I saw it was hit on the side of second base, I went,” Quayle said. “I saw it go right past me, so I started running and looked for my coach at third. I saw him waving me on, and I’m like, oh, I gotta hustle and get there. It was the best feeling ever scoring that run, just trying to get there and slide in and make sure I was safe at home. I didn’t know where the ball was, so, better safe than sorry. Huge props to McKenna for hitting that. It was really good.”

Prior to the seventh inning, Liberty assistant coach Cruz Rivera questioned whether a pitching change should be made if the game were to go to extra innings.

“And I basically said, we’re gonna win it in the seventh. I just had this feeling,” said Kaleycik. “When McKenna came up, I just had a feeling that this was the time. It’s one of those things that I knew, at that point, this is it. This is when she’s gonna come through, and to see the look on her face was just awesome.”

Beck had been struggling in the batter’s box as of late, and Kaleycik was emotional, talking about Beck’s hit and the Hurricane victory.

“I told them before we went out that inning, ‘Ladies, this is your game to win right here and right now. Look at all the crowd watching. Imagine how they’re gonna go nuts if we walk this one off like the other day against Easton.’ And didn’t they go and do it,” said Kaleycik. “I’m on Cloud 9. This was a big win to get us that much closer to the EPC playoffs, and now we’re competitive, not only in the league but in our own division, so it was a huge win all around.”

Liberty pitcher Addy Smith had a lead-off triple in the fourth inning, and courtesy runner Ava Dancho scored the Hurricanes’ first run on a wild pitch.

“I was just looking for the first pitch,” Smith said. “She kept throwing first-pitch strikes, so I was going into the box ready, and I think that hit really got us going.”

In the top of the fifth inning, Bixler walked, and courtesy runner Taylor D’Amico tied the game after Payton Besecker’s single to left field and back-to-back walks by Brooke Rummel and Brooklyn Pronovich.

Heading to the sixth inning, Kaleycik said that Smith wanted to win “something fierce.”

“I was definitely feeling excitement throughout the game, so I think that gave all of us the adrenaline to keep on going,” said Smith. “I just had to keep the ball around. I couldn’t keep throwing the same pitch, not letting them know what I was throwing, which helped me a lot. Especially after losing to Freedom three times last year, that was really rough, so we really wanted this one.”

Both teams will face another tough opponent on April 14, past Press deadlines, when Freedom will host Northampton, and Liberty will travel to Nazareth.

“This was such a well-played game all around,” said Kaleycik. “Freedom made some outstanding defensive plays. We hit the ball hard, and they were catching everything. They come as advertised. They’re a heck of a team, and we beat them. I think a lot of people wrote us off... I thought we could compete with any team, including Freedom, and we just proved it.”