Liberty Benton 9 Van Buren 7 Liberty-Benton built a 9-3 lead through five innings, then weathered a late comeback by Van Buren to beat the Black Knights 9-7 on Wednesday in a battle of Blanchard Valley Conference front runners. L-B improved to 13-7 overall and 5-1 in BVC games. Van Buren fell to 6-11, 3-2 in the league. Elmwood (15-3, 5-1 BVC) also has just one league loss, but the Royals game at Riverdale on Wednesday was postponed to wet field conditions. Sophie McDaniel, Kylie Modd, and Lauren Erdeljac, hitting second, third and fourth in the L-B lineup, were 6-for-10 and drove in five runs. McDaniel (RBI) and Erdeljac (3 RBI) had a single and a double each; Modd had a pair of singles. Taylor Shaw added a two-run single. Van Buren outhit Liberty-Benton 14-9 with Jordan Patton (2 1B's), Claire Miller ( 2 1B's), Claire Maag (1B, 2B, 2 RBI), Audrey Riegle (2 1B's, RBI) and Haidyn Sattler (1B, 2B, RBI) delivering two hits each. Liberty-Benton 022 302 0 - 9 9 1 Van Buren 010 203 1 - 7 14 4