Liberty stays alive in Big South baseball tournament

Published: May 23, 2008

The words “game time” are usually scribbled on the itinerary the Liberty coaching staff hands to players before each game. The message Thursday morning was much more concise and urgent.

“Elimination game.”

For Flames seniors like Ryan Page and Garrett Young, the words struck close to home. Liberty had never gone two-and-out in a double-elimination Big South tournament, and the LU seniors didn’t want any part of being on the first team to complete such an ignominious feat.

Page was downright unhittable at times, mixing a crisp fastball with a biting slider. Young hit a two-run double that jumpstarted Liberty’s offense in the fourth inning. Liberty, the tournament’s second seed, hammered eighth-seed UNC Asheville 10-1 at Dan Daniel Memorial Park to advance in the loser’s bracket.

“The way he was throwing, all we needed was a three-run lead,” Young said.

The Flames (32-25-1) will face Radford in an elimination game today at 11 a.m. Should LU win, it would play another elimination game at 7 p.m.

Page (5-5) breezed through the Bulldogs’ order the first time through, striking out five of the first nine UNCA batters. But Liberty didn’t exactly light up UNCA starter Graham Baughn in the early going. Baughn, who finished the season with an 8.41 ERA, held Liberty to two singles in the first three innings.

Page ran into trouble in the fourth. After Kevin Mattison struck out to open the inning, Kevin Weidenbacher and Justin Schumer singled. Elliott Arrington popped out to third for the second out, but Page walked Reed Kreiser to load the bases, bringing up Danny Baatz.

Page worked the count to 3-2. On the payoff pitch, he threw a fastball, and Baatz hit a short chopper to shortstop Aaron Phillips. Phillips charged, scooped and fired to David Giammaresi at first for the third out, and Page ran off the mound shouting and pumping his fists.

“I knew I had to keep doing what I was doing to keep my team in it,” Page said. “I knew they’d pull through and break it open eventually. I had to keep holding them down until they did that.”

After the scare, the Flames finally provided their pitcher with some run support. Giammaresi drew a lead-off walk. Cody Brown doubled and Young drove them both in with a double to right-center. Tim Rotola later grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Young and pushed Liberty’s lead to 3-0.

Young’s took the pressure off Page, who pitched a 1-2-3 fifth.

“Yesterday and today, we were hitting a lot of balls hard right at people,” Young said. “Eventually, they were going to start to find holes somewhere. Once we started finding holes, we just kept on going.”

Page fought out of another bases-loaded jam in the sixth. With one out, Page whiffed Kreiser on three pitches before forcing Baatz into a flyout to right field. An emotional Page, who struck out nine in seven innings, again bounded off the mound, screaming, “yeah!! yeah!!” at the top of his lungs. Liberty scored three times in the sixth and twice each in the seventh and eighth to break it open.

“He was special today,” Liberty pitching coach Scott Jackson said of Page. “The last three or four outings have been good, and today kind of put the exclamation mark on it. He went out there, getting after it, attacking the zone. Basically, he said ‘here it is, hit it.’ He laid everything on the table and said ‘if I’m going to get beat, I’m going to get beat being aggressive.’”

Liberty outfielder P.K. Keller missed the game with an injured right shoulder. Freshman Jeff Jefferson, a graduate of Tunstall High School, had a career-high four hits in five at-bats and drove in three runs while starting in Keller’s place.

Jackson filled in for head coach Jim Toman, who was serving a one-game suspension after being ejected for the second time this season in the tournament opener against Radford. (“I was just trying not to screw it up, to be honest with you,” Jackson joked.)

Toman sat in the stands, conversing with athletics director Jeff Barber for much of the game. Before the game in the team hotel, he met with assistants Jackson, Nick Schnabel and Jeremiah Boles to discuss strategy.

“We know enough about (Toman’s) philosophy and the way he wants to do things,” Jackson said. “We talked a little bit, but I think we know each other well enough now that we kind of knew what he wanted to do.”

ASHEVILLE 000 000 001 — 1 8 1
LIBERTY 000 303 22X — 10 13 0
WP — Ryan Page (5-5). LP — Graham Baughn (2-3).
Highlights — UNCA: Kevin Mattison 2-4, 3B, RBI; Beau Zinman 2-4. LU: Jeff Jefferson 4-5, 2 runs, 3 RBI; Tim Rotola 1-4, 3B, 3 RBI; Garrett Young 1-5, 2B, run, 2 RBI; Ryan Page 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 9 K, 4 BB.