Photos: Liberty tops Liberty North to win Missouri Class 5 District 8 softball title

The Liberty and Liberty North softball teams have met in the district tournament six times in the past nine seasons and split those meetings with three wins apiece.
This time, it was Liberty defeating rival Liberty North 11-8 to win the Missouri Class 5 District 8 championship on Thursday at the Creekside Baseball Park in Parkville.
The district title was the first for the Blue Jays since 2019, which was the third of three straight years of capturing the district championship.
Liberty (25-8) avenged a 6-5 loss to Liberty North (21-11) in the district tournament a year ago. The Blue Jays won district matchups in 2019 and 2018, while the Eagles won in 2016 and 2014.
Liberty advances to face the District 7 winner — either top seed Lee's Summit West, No. 2 seed Raymore-Peculiar or No. 3 seed Truman – in the Class 5 quarterfinals next Wednesday.
Here is a look at the game from photographer David Smith:
Liberty-Liberty North softball
Photos from David Smith

Nate Latsch is a Regional Editor at SBLive Sports overseeing high school coverage for Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. A veteran sportswriter and multimedia content creator, Latsch has covered high school sports in the St. Louis area and Missouri for 20 years, with a focus on high school football, basketball, baseball and football and basketball recruiting. He has worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, STLhighschoolsports.com, the Associated Press, FOX Sports Midwest, MLB.com and Scout.com. In addition to covering high school sports, Latsch has covered youth, college and professional sports, including covering the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues and St. Louis Rams, the University of Missouri and Saint Louis University.
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