Liberty Lions Baseball

Online Tax credit Link->-> 2024-25

What is a school tax credit?

A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in state taxes that are owed. In general, if you make a tax credit contribution and you owe on your state taxes, in most cases, the amount of your tax credit contribution will be deducted from your tax bill. Donate up to $200 single/$400 married. Example is, you can donate $300 to baseball and $100 to participation fee and is all can be used for tax credit. This is separate from the sponsor form which is a tax deduction. See link above. 

BASEBALL TAX CREDIT:
To make a baseball tax donation, select school "Liberty High School"->"Tax Credit Baseball" -> amount of donation and then click blue "Donate" button to add to cart. Put your athletes name in memo. If adding the participation fee at the same time, repeat above steps but use "Tax Credit Atletic Participation Fee", $100, then add to cart before checking out. 

ATHLETIC PARTICIPATION FEE TAX CREDIT: This is payed AFTER making an official team roster. 
If paying the required yearly Athletic participation sports fee of $100, please pay separately from baseball tax cedit. To do so, select "Liberty HS" -> "Athletic Participation Fee" from drop-down menu -> $100 and "donate" button to add to cart. Put athletes name in memo box. Participation Fees need to be paid separate from "Tax Credit Baseball" fees or they will not be applied correctly to your account. See picture below for what cart should look like prior to paying.

Thank you for your donations. Tax credits can be used until tax day and applied to 2024 tax year or saved for 2025.

All players must be cleared through Register My Athlete. https://www.registermyathlete.com. 

AIA forms are avaiable here. https://www.aiaonline.org/files/16936/forms-157-a-d.pdf

All above forms must be uploaded on Register My Athlete with a green check completes in all categories. 

Liberty's prowess at the plate helps produce another title

May 19, 2021 by Jose Garcia, AZPreps365

Lifting weights. Fourteen seniors. Peaking at the right time.

All three and other factors probably contributed to Liberty winning its second baseball title since 2018. Like in 2018, the 2021 team compiled a long win streak en route to a championship celebration at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Liberty was likely the most complete baseball team in the state this year. Its opponent, Alhambra, was one of the best feel-good stories during the current Arizona high school sports year.

It became the first Phoenix Union District baseball team to play for a title in the state’s highest classification since 1985. But Tuesday belonged to Liberty, which closed its 2021 baseball chapter with a 10-0 victory in five innings in the 6A Conference final.

“I don’t think there’s an offensive performance that I can remember as a group I’ve ever coached that can come even remotely close to this,” said Liberty coach Chris Raymond, whose team won its final 19 games.

Raymond’s experienced squad averaged about 11 runs per game during that torrid stretch.

This year and last year’s seniors, whose season was cancelled, were motivating factors for Liberty to walk out as champs this year as well. 

One of the 14 seniors Liberty dressed, Carson Baker, who just happens to wear No. 14, aptly brought home the final run to initiate his team’s well-deserved on the field celebration.

Oh and it was the 14th hit (all singles) of the game for Liberty.

“Unbelievable,” said Baker about his game-ending walk-off at bat to cap his team’s five run fifth inning to invoke the mercy rule. “Before the playoffs started I was playing OK baseball and coach Raymond came up to me and he said, 'You are going to walk-off one of these games.'

“And sure enough it was the biggest game of the year. It feels awesome.”

Before travelling to Tuesday's championship game, Liberty's seniors attended their high school graduation ceremony. 

Those players donned their baseball uniforms under their caps and gowns. 

“A lot of it has to do with the seniors from last year as well who were at (today’s) game,” said Baker as he pointed to some of those former players. “We are a brotherhood. We’ve been so close since freshman year. To finally come out all together is awesome.”

Liberty’s bats were the first ones to unravel Alhambra’s starting pitcher, Marco Pacheco, who was 10-0 in his career with a .52 ERA.

It was also the first time that a team scored more than three earned runs in a game against Alhambra this season. After a 2-3 start, Raymond switched his team’s focus at the plate, becoming more of a line drive hitting team.

Liberty (21-3) never lost again after that slow start. On the mound, the team possessed the depth and talent to make a deep run.

It’s two horses, Washington State commit Kaden Schiefelbien and Ole Miss commit Traig Oughton, combined to hold Alhambra to just two hits. After allowing those two hits, Schiefelbien appeared to suffer a minor arm injury in the third inning.

Raymond didn’t hesitate to bring in Oughton so that Schiefelbien wouldn’t risk further injuring his right arm. Oughton induced four ground outs during his 1.1 innings of work.

Raymond was also quick to credit his school’s strength coach, Brian Cherry, for his team’s plate power. Six players tallied multiple hits in Tuesday’s game.

Everybody on the team can also power clean at least 225 pounds, a first for any of Raymond’s five Liberty teams. The head coach and his staff also deserve a lot of credit.

Raymond has coached two of the three championships Liberty has won. This was Liberty’s fifth appearance in the big game since 2012.