‘Dogs battle in Dodge tourney

In the first game of the Senior Babe Ruth doubleheader against Lakin, Liberal Bulldog Bryan Morris is the final man to run down a Lakin player caught in a rundown between first and second bases. Liberal went on to win the first game 16-1. The second game was called because of lightening. Photo by TV Hagenah

Liberal go 4-2 at Dodge

All in all it was a good weekend for the Liberal Bulldogs as they traveled to north to the Dodge City Senior Babe Ruth Invitational Tournament. Liberal placed third behind two Wichita teams going 4-2 for the two-day tournament.

"I really felt we did well," said coach Eric Olmstead. "It was an exhausting tournament, and physically it was very draining, but I felt we did well."

Olmstead pointed to his team's extremely early rising in Liberal for early morning games in Dodge as possible reasons for weak play in two of the games at the tournament.

"I don't want to make excuses," Olmstead said, "but I really do believe that our two losses are directly related to that. Our mistakes and our errors really did come out of that I think."

In pool play the Bulldogs went 1-1, losing to the Wichita Rockies 19-5 and defeating the Finney County Storm 13-1. In the tournament bracket play Liberal defeated the Hooker Horny Toads 13-0, but lost to Dodge City early Sunday morning in an error-plagued game 7-1. Liberal came back and defeated The Oklahoma Panthers, an all-star team from Ada, Okla. Then in their final game of the tournament, the game for third place, Liberal went against the team that beat them on Saturday. They took on the Wichita Rockies.

"We played much better," Olmstead said of the return match against the team who run-ruled them a day earlier.

Liberal defeated the Rockies 15-14 in eight innings.

"It felt really good to win that," Olmstead said of the revenge win against the Rockies.

In spite of playing both Saturday and Sunday, the Bulldogs were back at it on Monday hosting Laking in Liberal. The home team was clearly on top of their game defeating Lakin 16-1. The second game f the contest was call in the third inning because of lightening with Liberal leading 5-2.

Liberal is scheduled to host Elkhart but according to Olmstead a problem has arisen for the Elkhart team. The game may have to be postponed.

© 2008 Southwest Times