Bad weather forces 1A title game to Wednesday finish

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The Liberty Bulldogs were hoping to end Tuesday with a 1A State Softball Championship. Mother Nature had other ideas. The Bulldogs at 20-8, playing in the title game against 25-4 Branford, a game that was began just after 4 eastern time.

he two sides went back and forth early on with Liberty scoring first in the top of the first thanks to a Gabriella Flowers RBI double to left that plated Cha’miya Williams. In the bottom of the second the Buc’s were able to score two in the inning, the first on a bloop single up the middle, the second on a bunt in which the Bulldogs got the out at first, but a throw to third got by the third baseman, and it allowed a Buc’s runner to race across the plate, making it 2-1 Branford. In the top of the third, Liberty tied it on an odd play, Flowers pops up in foul ground, the catcher catches it, then dropped it as she tried to exchange hands to throw it, Williams raced in and beat the throw. After a long discussion, the umps upheld the call, tying the game at 2. After a 30 minute weather delay they played another two innings, with each team scoring twice. And then another storm blew through the Clermont area, and that storm last long enough for FHSAA officials to halt all play Tuesday. The Liberty-Branford game will be resumed Wednesday at ten a.m. eastern.

I spoke with Liberty head coach Jenifer Sewell last night after she and others scrambled to get their hotel rooms back, with other teams coming in for their games. They did get checked back in. And since they only had two sets of uniforms, the parents stayed up late using the hotel’s one washer and dryer to clean the uni’s from Tuesday! Coach says it was tough having the game stopped with the Bulldogs owning the momentum, having scored runs in the 4th and 5th to tie it. When they resume in the top of the 5th Liberty will have two runners on with no outs and their cleanup hitter at the plate!