SAN ANTONIO – Liberty Hill captured a pair of one-run victories over Boerne Champion during last weekend’s Region IV-5A DII finals to end the 2025 Charger baseball season The Panthers are the only team to beat Champion twice this season and also the only ones to beat them two games in a row.
Liberty Hill won Thursday’s Game 1 in Austin at Concordia University, 1-0, and then closed it out Friday at Northeast Sports Park in San Antonio, 9-8.
Champion ends its 2025 season at 29-10 and finishes the year as one of the top 8 teams in the state.
Immediately after the game, the seniors went back to Boerne and graduated that night in a ceremony held at BISD Stadium.
Chargers coach Ben Woodchick said it was a whirlwind of a day.
“Graduation felt a little surreal. I’ve been on a lot of turf the last few weeks, but never in dress clothes,” he said. “We got to talk about a lot of things, not just baseball. I think the boys were emotionally spent. We wanted to play (this) week, but they are very proud of their season. We accomplished every goal we set out to accomplish, except one and only one team in the state will achieve that goal.”
Game 2 Liberty Hill 9, Champion 8 After only scoring one combined run between the teams Thursday, that wasn’t the case Friday as the teams combined for 7 runs in the first inning alone.
The Panthers started things off with a 3-run homer from Carson Sharp in the top half of the first, but the Chargers answered with a 4-run inning in the bottom half of the frame, highlighted by a 3-run homer by Sawyer Smith and were up 4-3.
Both teams scored in the second after the Panthers pushed in 2 runs and went back on top at 5-4, but Champion again answered and scored a run in the bottom half of the inning to tie it at 5-5 after Owen Kuhl singled and later scored.
After that, Champion went four straight innings without a run, while the Panthers were steady and scored in the first five innings.
Liberty Hill tallied single runs in the third, fourth and fifth frames to pull ahead 8-5. Sharp banged out another home run in the third, his second of the game.
The only inning that Liberty Hill didn’t push in a run came in the sixth when the Chargers kept them off the board, but they did score in six of the seven innings.
The Panthers took an 8-5 lead into the seventh and used a walk, followed by two singles to bump the lead to 9-5 and that run proved to be crucial because the Chargers almost caught them in the bottom half of the frame.
In the bottom of the seventh, AJ Grizzaffi walked and then Kuhl blasted an RBI triple to the fence in center field to bring in Grizzaffi and make it 9-6.
Cal Isley walked and then Jaedyn Yamaguchi hit a sac fly to center field that allowed Kuhl to tag from third and trim the lead to 9-7.
Garland Whitehead came up to bat and singled to push in Isley, and it was 9-8 with only one out.
Sharp was the pitcher at the time for the Panthers and while he struggled at times, he also got the job done and got the next Charger batter to fly out to center field for the second out.
Sharp then induced the next Champion batter to hit a grounder to second base and the throw to first ended it.
Both teams used three pitchers in the contest since it was an all hands-on-deck situation because the Chargers were trying to force a Game 3 and the Panthers were trying to end it.
Grizzaffi started on the hill for the Chargers and threw two innings; Pearce Kelly entered in the third and tossed the middle three innings, while Jackson Melanson pitched in the final two frames to close it out.
Of the nine runs scored by Liberty Hill, only seven were earned as miscues hurt the Chargers in both games.
“Liberty Hill executed very well and took advantage of nearly every extra base we gave them and scored most of their free baserunners,” Woodchick said. “They also made a couple of really big defensive plays, especially in Game 1. We made more errors than in a normal series, but they also registered 15 hits over two games.”
Clayton Ward, Tyler Dominguez and Sharp all threw for the Panthers, and Ward earned the win since the Panthers were leading 6-5 when he was replaced by Dominguez.
Game 1 Liberty Hill 1, Champion 0
AUSTIN - It took extra innings, but someone was finally able to break through in a 0-0 stalemate between Boerne Champion and Liberty Hill during Thursday’s Region IV-5A DII finals Game 1 at Concordia University.
With the bases loaded and only one out, the Panthers tallied the only run of the contest to take a 1-0 series before closing it out Friday.
Both teams had chances to score in Thursday’s Game 1 series opener in Austin but couldn’t push in any runs through the first eight frames.
Liberty Hill’s first batter of the game made it to second but was stranded. The Panthers also had runners at second and third in the second with no outs but didn’t score.
They also put runners in scoring position at second base in the fourth and fifth frames and had another runner at third in the sixth but were turned away every time by Champion pitcher Sawyer Smith and the rest of the Charger defense.
In that second frame, Liberty Hill had runners at second and third with no outs, but Smith pitched them out of a jam with a ground out, a strike out and then he fielded a grounder up the middle and threw to first to retire the side.
Liberty Hill’s defense returned the favor and turned double plays in the second and fourth frames to keep the Chargers off the board.
In the fifth, Aidan Smith walked, moved to second on a sac bunt by Sawyer Smith and then made it to third on a wild pitch, while Austin Garritano also walked and was at second base with two outs, but a pop up to centerfield ended the threat.
Cal Isley made it to third in the sixth inning with a oneout single. He stole second and advanced to third on a Jaedyn Yamaguchi ground out, but Isley was stranded at third after Panthers’ pitcher Jordan Andrews retired the next Charger batter to close out the inning.
AJ Grizzaffi singled in the eighth, but three straight outs with two fly outs to right field and a pop up to the infield ended the inning.
Sawyer Smith went eight full innings on the hill and threw 103 pitches before he was replaced by Aidan Smith in the ninth.
Sawyer Smith only gave up 2 hits in his eight innings of work, didn’t yield a run, walked 4 and struck out 4 and gets the tough luck “no decision” since he left with the game still knotted at 0s.
Andrews went 7 innings for the Panthers and left at 102 pitches before he was replaced by Tyler Dominguez.
Andrews yielded 4 hits, no runs, 2 walks and fanned 7 and didn’t get the decision either since Dominguez was the pitcher of record when Liberty Hill scored.
Dominguez pitched well in relief and only gave up one hit, the single to Grizzaffi in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, he struck out the first two batters he faced for his only two Ks of the game and then induced a pop up to take it to the bottom of the ninth.
In the bottom of the ninth, Giancarlo Geletei started the at bat for the Panthers with a single off Aidan Smith.
Smith struck out the next batter for the first out, but Reese Pestow singled to put runners at first and second.
Greyson McVan then hit a grounder up the middle that Smith fielded cleanly, but the throw to second base to start the potential double play was off, and everybody was safe with the bases loaded and still only one out.
Brady Gage came up for the Panthers and hit a grounder to second base. The throw from second to the plate wasn’t in time and Geletei scored to break the ice and tally the only run of the game and end it there.
The Chargers committed two errors in that ninth inning, and Woodchick said that was one of the reasons they lost.
“Liberty Hill hit the ball and manufactured runs,” he said. “We hit as well and fought but we were a couple of mistakes too many and a few hits too short of what was necessary to win.”
Aidan Smith, Yamaguchi, Owen Kuhl, Isley and Grizzaffi recorded the 5 Champion hits in the game.
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