Liberty caps 2025 regular season with 19-2 win

The Liberty High School fastpitch team is running on all cylinders as they defeated Newport 19-2 in five innings for their third straight win.

For head coach Joon Huh, a loss to Eastlake on April 21 by a close score of 2-1 shined light on what is to come for the Patriots.

“I’m super excited. I feel like these girls have progressed a long way this season and they feel like they have something to prove,” Huh said.

With Liberty being in the highest KingCo tier, they have played a majority of 4A teams this season. Those games have battled tested this group and helped prepare them for the postseason.

“I believe that every game was an intense one. That gets us ready to be ready all the time. Seeing 4A teams all the time was a great opportunity for us to grow as a team and bond with seeing that competition 24/7,” Emi Connell said.

Liberty’s offense over its past three games have scored a total of 51 runs, and all three wins came via the mercy rule.

It was clear in the first inning the Patriots’ offense was clicking.

“The last couple of weeks we had a little time off and since we have come back we have been ramping up pretty well. We are coming together at the right time,” Huh said.

Newport even scored a run, but that didn’t faze Liberty. Seven runs came across in the bottom of the first, led by Kaila Siu, who doubled and tripled in the first inning. Eleven batters stepped up to the plate in the first — six recorded base hits, three were extra base hits.

Liberty then scored three in the second and two in the third before once again exploding for seven runs in the fourth.

Seven Patriots came to the plate in the fourth inning before recording an out. Siu doubled home Malina Aceveda and Abigail Handlin. Isabella Rockey reached on an error to load the bases for senior Emi Connell.

With the bases loaded, Connell hit her fifth homer of the season to bring home all three runners.

The top four hitters for Liberty have been clicking the past three games. Siu (4-four-4), Rockey (2-for-4), Avery Huh (1-for-2) and Connell (2-for-3) went a combined 9-for-13 in the win over Newport. Four of those nine hits were extra base hits — Siu hit two doubles, Huh’s one hit was a double and Connells home run.

“It’s all about team chemistry. If everyone is up, we are bound to succeed. We struggled a little bit with that tough competition, but I believed we battled back. We earned a lot of tough skin,” Connell said.

In the 11-0 win over Bothell, the 21-1 drubbing of Chief Sealth, and this game, the Patriots’ top four went a combined 25-for-36 (.694 BA). The four of them have really connected and as a whole pick each other up when one is slumping.

“They are awesome. I am willing to move them around, but I just haven’t needed to. Our top four are top notch. Have they slumped individually at times? Of course. But there is always somebody in that four that lights a spark,” Huh said.

Huh went four innings, gave up two runs (one was earned) and struck out six Knights on 52 pitches. Jelly Davies pitched the final inning and dismissed Newport in order to end the regular season on a high note.

Avery Huh has been the number one pitcher for Liberty all season. Anyone knows that pitching depth is extremely important as the calendar flips to May and playoff softball inches ever closer.

“Seeing hard competition three times a week for the past two months has made our pitching even better. We know what will succeed in what situations. We have a good connection, especially after our league season,” said Connell.