The Lady Panthers will play at Long County Monday, opening Liberty County High School’s softball season. The first pitch is set for 5:30 p.m.
The Lady Blue Tide beat Brunswick 6-5 in a scrimmage last week and were expected to play three games this weekend at the Summer in the Swamp Tournament, pending rain.
For the Liberty girls Monday’s game is the first between rival schools. Thursday, the Lady Panthers face their other local rival, Bradwell Institute, on the Lady Tigers field.
The Lady Tide can draw from a pool of seven seniors, six juniors and a sophomore this year and are at least two deep in the battery, just like the Lady Panthers.
The Liberty girls are junior heavy, but with a wealth of game experience.
Both squads carry heavy hitters. The Lady Tide held a .310 batting average last season, while the Liberty girls finished with a .254 average.
Both teams also have an extremely talented pitching rotation. The Lady Panthers primarily rotated Kaleigh Fisher and Kathryn Carter last year. The duo was responsible for the Lady Panthers’ 3.33 ERA and threw five shut outs.
The Lady Tide primarily rotates Emily Hester and Harley Dawson. They produced four shut outs and finished with a 1.43 ERA.
The stats are according to what is posted on maxpreps.com.