Liberty clinches LVC East Division title in softball; Parkland stays hot

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/ FROM KEITH GROLLER Three key games were played in Lehigh Valley Conference softball on Friday. Liberty defeated Bethlehem Catholic 1-0 in a great pitcher's duel between Erin Wilson and Joelle Morey. Both teams had five hits, but the Hurricanes pushed across the game's only run in the second inning on a hit by Wilson (seen above in a past photo) With the win, Liberty (11-1) clinched the division crown and pushed defending champ Becahi to the brink of being eliminated from the LVC tournament. Elsewhere, Parkland smashed its way to an 11-2 win over host Nazareth, and Freedom, showing some spunk even as it plays out a disappointing season, stunned Easton 7-5, severely wounding the Red Rovers playoff chances. With Emmaus (7-4) set to win the West Division and Parkland (10-2) going to win the North, the focus is all on the wild-card position now. Just two league games remain for most teams and Whitehall (8-4) leads the wild-card race right now with Becahi (7-5) also having a decent chance to get in. Becahi must play Freedom and Easton next week. Whitehall, meanwhile, hosts Nazareth on Tuesday and Parkland on Thursday. The good news for Becahi is that it holds the tiebreaker edge over Whitehall because the Golden Hawks defeated the Zephs 3-1 earlier this week. So, if Whitehall wants to get into the league tournament, it better beat both Nazareth and Parkland. Northampton (5-6), Easton (6-6) and Nazareth (6-6) are all frankly in need of miracles, at this point, to advance to the LVC tourney, and Easton still needs one more win to qualify for districts.