FIFTY YEARS AGO…
Liberty Beats Fallsburg; Caps Perfect Season
by John Conway
June 2021
LIBERTY—Fifty years ago this month, on June 2, 1971, the Liberty High School Indians baseball team completed its perfect season in the DUSO Village League with a 19-4 win over the visiting Comets of Fallsburg High.
With the victory, Liberty finished its regular season with a 9-0 league mark, while the loss spoiled Fallsburg’s hopes for a winning record, dropping them to 4-5 in league play on the year.
“Liberty High, with the DUSO Village League crown firmly nailed down already, plastered luckless Fallsburg 19-4 Wednesday to finish regular season play with a 9-0 record,” the Times Herald-Record newspaper reported the day after the contest.
“The Indians locked up the victory with a 12-run first inning, belting out eight hits, and taking advantage of six Fallsburg errors and a walk,” the TH-R account continued. “Besides six singles, Liberty got a triple by Gary Sussman and a three-run homer by Lee Winters.”
Doug Friedman was the winning pitcher for the home team, going five innings and giving up just one hit—a first inning single by Frank Jackson. Winters, who had been playing right field, pitched the final two innings for the Indians.
Fallsburg managed eight hits in the game, three of them by Jackson. All four of the Comet runs came in the sixth inning, after Friedman had exited the game.
As DUSO Village League champs, Liberty went on to play in the Class C division of the Section IX tournament, travelling to Washingtonville on June 7 to take on the Wizards of Washingtonville High, the winners of the Orange County League crown.
The Indians season ended when they dropped a 1-0 extra inning heart-breaker.