DANVILLE, Va. ? Ryan Page tossed seven shutout innings and Jeff Jefferson had four hits and three RBI in leading No. 2 seed Liberty to a 10-1 victory over No. 8 UNC Asheville in Game 4 of the 2008 Royal Purple Big South Conference Baseball Championship, May 22 at Dan Daniel Memorial Park in Danville, Va. With the victory, Liberty improves to 32-25-1 and advances to play Friday at a to-be-determined time. UNC Asheville is eliminated from the tournament and ends its season at 24-35.
In a contrast to Wednesday's tournament action, the game was scoreless through the first three-and-a-half innings. UNC Asheville threatened to score in the top of the fourth as the Bulldogs loaded the bases with two outs. But Page retired Bulldogs first baseman Daniel Baatz on a groundout to short after Baatz fouled off five-straight pitches in an 11-pitch at-bat.
Liberty plated three runs in the bottom of the fourth to open the scoring. David Giammaresi walked and moved to third on Cody Brown's double to the gap in left center. Garrett Young then doubled both runners home to give Liberty a 2-0 advantage. The Flames later loaded the bases and Young scored on Tim Rotola's fielder's choice. The runs also snapped UNC Asheville starter Graham Baughn's 14.2 scoreless inning streak in the Big South baseball tournament.
Page got out of another bases loaded jam in the sixth inning. Asheville's Kevin Mattison led off with a triple, increasing his Big South career record to 23. Page struck out Kevin Weidenbacher, but issued back-to-back walks to Justin Schumer and Elliott Arrington. He then fanned Reed Kreiser on three pitches and induced Baatz into a fly out to right to end the threat.
"We missed a lot of opportunities," stated UNC Asheville head coach Willie Stewart. "We had some big at-bats with the bases loaded early in the game, but couldn't get a big hit. Liberty responded well in the bottom of those innings and got the big hits. That was the difference. We just didn't get it done today."
The Flames put the game out of reach in the late stages with eight runs in their final three innings. Asheville broke up the shutout in the top of the ninth when Beau Zinman singled with one out and later scored on Mattison's single. The Bulldogs had bases loaded with one out, but Flames reliever Andrew Wilson struck out Weidenbacher and Schumer to end the game.
