Hawks walk it off over Falcons

Tyler Takeda/The Madera Tribune

The Liberty Hawks baseball team celebrates winning its second straight Div. IV Central Section championship after a walk-off winner against Independence in Visalia on Saturday.

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VISALIA — The three most exciting words in baseball are, “Walk off winner,” and the Liberty Hawks baseball team did just that to win its second straight Div. IV Central Section title, and fourth in seven years (one year was the COVID year) to create a baseball dynasty.

Liberty’s top hitter, and one of the best in school history, McGuire Smith, made up for striking out twice with the walk-off winner with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday to lift the top-seeded Hawks to a 2-1 victory over No. 7 Independence in a Memorial Day weekend battle of patriotic team names. at Valley Strong Ballpark, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks Single-A Affiliate, Visalia Rawhide.

“That’s a lot of grit,” Smith said. “We all knew we had each other’s backs from the beginning. We’ve worked since January, grinding away. After the first two ABs, my teammates had my back and fought for me. They kept us in the game and picked me up. I was able to repay them in the eighth inning. I was able to come up big.”