Staff photo / Brian Yauger Liberty senior Clayton Bratton delivers a pitch to the plate during Thursday’s 5-4 loss to Lisbon.

LIBERTY — While they didn’t pull out the win, the Liberty Leopards gave the community a show on Thursday while finally getting to christen their new field.

Liberty rallied back from a four-run deficit and had the game-tying run on third but couldn’t quite complete the comeback in a 5-4 loss for the Leopards.

“It felt good (to play on the new field),” Liberty coach Charles Russell said. “I wish we could have pulled out that win. We just gave up too many runs early in the game. It would have been nice to get that win, but it was great playing on this field, it was a great atmosphere and it was nice to see all the people come out.

“It means a lot to have the community out and coming to support. I hope it continues.”

The Leopards fell into a hole early, trailing 4-0 by the fourth inning. But Liberty found its way home in the fourth inning, with Lucianno DiNardo rounding home to score the first Leopards run on the new field.

They gave up one more run in the sixth but started coming alive in the bottom of the inning. DiNardo rounded home once more off of a Connor Hallden single, then Luke Bates scored off a sacrifice from Zaid Amireh.

Senior Trenton Long got the game to a 5-4 Blue Devil advantage in the bottom of the seventh. With the tying runner on third, however, Liberty wasn’t able to force extra innings.

Russell hopes that sparks some urgency in the opening innings going forward.

“It’s just making them understand that we’ve got to have that energy early and not wait until the third, fourth, fifth inning,” Russell said. “We have to have that energy in the first and second inning so we score and we keep scoring. We don’t want to let that other team get that advantage on us.”

Some key defensive stops during the middle innings served as Liberty’s wake-up call and got the team going.

“We got two quick innings and I think that kind of got us ready to go,” Russell said. “We went and hit the ball a little bit, got some base runners and that’s all we can ask. Put the ball in play and try to get them across the plate. I think those two quick innings that we had on our end, really, really helped to kind of fire us a little bit.”

As the Leopards (0-5) look for their first win, mental toughness is going to be a crucial factor.

“I’m trying to make them tough, just be tough,” Russell said. “Sometimes we have some mental lapses, but you gotta get through that and just be as tough as you can. Life’s going to beat you down, so you just gotta fight through it and I just want to make them fighters.”

Liberty has a chance to earn that first win today when they host Brookfield. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.

After a 15-2 loss earlier in the week, the Leopards are hoping to get some revenge.

“We had a tough one with them Monday and I don’t think the score reflected the value of our team and what we can do,” Russell said. “Tomorrow’s just up and better.”