Liberty’s softball team was knocked out of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Tournament in a quarterfinal game against Nazareth with the Blue Eagles’ 12-2 victory over the Hurricanes on May 11 at Nazareth.

“That’s a good team. I’m not gonna take anything away from them, but this game should’ve been a lot closer than it was,” said Liberty coach Sam Carrodo. “It was a misrepresentation of what this program is and what this team is for what happened today, and I’m really disappointed in what was a very good team that should have been stronger than this, mentally, and we’re not.”

Liberty scored its first run in the third inning on Adelynn Smith’s line drive to left center that scored Molly Devers who had tripled to right center.

Nazareth then took a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the same inning, and by the fourth inning, the Hurricanes had given up 11 walks and a hit-by-pitch.

“Once Nazareth got to 5-0, 5-1, I knew it was done because I could just see the kids. There was no life, no heart,” Carrodo said. “It’s a shame because they’re a good team, but they need to learn how to handle adversity. They didn’t respond to it.”

Madison Noll’s RBI double scored the Hurricanes’ only other run in the fourth inning.

After Nazareth pitcher Avery Kauffman forced three straight outs in the fifth, the Blue Eagles piled on four runs to end the game by mercy rule.

In the regular season, Liberty and Nazareth split their series with one win and one loss each. Both games were decided by one run.

Nazareth will have faced Freedom in an EPC semifinal on May 15, while Liberty will take a few days off before its preparation for the upcoming District XI Tournament, scheduled to begin next week.