Pats strike at right time

Timely hitting and good bunting was the difference in Liberty Middle's 7-6 road win over Cornersville Middle on Monday night.

The Patriots picked up three runs in the fourth with three hits and two walks.

In the sixth inning, Chace Warren led the offense with two hits and had the big blow of the game with a triple to score Jacob Butler. Warren scored the winning run on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunt by Jake Fears.

"Their pitching really shut us down tonight but we found a way to claw some runs across and manage to get some runs late in the game," Liberty coach Shane Shoemake said. "I was real proud of how we bounced back after last week, I finally got some leadership out of my older guys and hopefully these guys will start to have fun playing baseball."

The Patriots preserved the win in the bottom of the seventh when Madden Reeves' relay throw from the outfield to catcher Fears cut down the potential tying run at the plate.

Stetson Blackwell started on the mound for Liberty and went 4 1/3 innings before Ben Boyce and Jacob Davidson finished the game out.

Liberty hosts Cornersville on Friday night at 6.