ROCK HILL, S.C.? Liberty shortstop Patrick Gaillard singled up the middle to bring home his second run of the night as the third-seeded Flames completed a ninth-inning comeback to defeat fourth-seeded VMI in game three of the 2007 Big South Conference Baseball Championship, held at the Winthrop Ballpark on Wednesday evening.
Liberty (34-23) hurler Dustin Umberger allowed only one earned run in throwing a complete game three-hitter, taking the win to improve to 5-4 on the season. Sophomore closer Kevin Crum took the loss for the Keydets, surrendering both ninth-inning runs in relief of VMI (34-20) starter Michael Bowman, who backed up his Second Team All-Conference selection by scattering nine hits through eight innings, striking out eight batters while allowing only two runs, with those coming across in the first two frames for the Flames.
“I thought that Michael Bowman pitched his heart out today,” said VMI head coach Marlin Ikenberry. “I went out to the mound in the eighth inning, and he said that he had the next hitter, and he got him to get out of the inning. If he had more pitches in him, then we would have kept him out there, but I just couldn't keep him out there that long. Kevin Crum mislocated two pitches, and in a tight game like that, you can't mislocate two pitches. It was a great college baseball game. I thought their guy (Umberger) pitched his heart out, and I thought Michael Bowman pitched his heart out, they just had the last at bat.”
The Flames advance to play the second-seeded Winthrop Eagles, who defeated fifth-seeded High Point by a 6-5 margin, while the Keydets must face top-seeded Coastal Carolina at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon after they survived a scare from sixth-seeded UNC Asheville in a 6-3 victory.
The Keydets took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, as Michael Roberts connected for his second triple of the season, a shot into centerfield that got past Garrett Young on a diving attempt. That came about after Young was charged with an error that put runners at second and third base, when A.J. Yoder lifted a lazy fly ball into shallow centerfield that went off of Young's glove for what should have been the inning's third out.
The Flames answered in the bottom of the frame, pushing across a single run as Kenneth Negron came around to score on Young's sacrifice fly. Each team tacked on another in the second inning, with VMI's Thane Smith doubling down the rightfield line to plate Justin Hess, while Gaillard collected his first home run of the season to cut the margin to 3-2 through two innings.
Both Umberger and Bowman fell into a rhythm from there. A walk issued by Umberger with one out in the third inning was followed by a double play turned against Roberts, beginning a stretch of 16 straight batters retired by the LU righthander, a stretch that ended when Yoder was struck with a pitch to lead off the ninth inning. However, Umberger bounced back to retire the final three men in the ninth, as he notched four strikeouts in the Flames' first complete game outing of the season.
Meanwhile, Bowman did not have nearly as easy of a time against the Flames' lineup, as he was forced to escape jams in several of the middle innings. The VMI sophomore worked to strand a total of six baserunners in the third, fourth and fifth innings, before setting down eight batters in a row to bring the game to the eighth inning. With his pitch count rising, Bowman struck out his final batter of the evening to lead off the eighth, before allowing a base knock to P.K. Keller. The Keydets caught a break in the next at bat, as Gaillard lifted a high pop-up just in front of the plate that fell safely after Bowman could not make the play on it. However, first baseman Robert Crumpler alertly threw to second base to retire Keller to bring about the inning's second out. After another single put the go-ahead run on base, Bowman induced another fielder's choice, escaping the jam once again and leaving the game still with a one-run advantage.
Crum then came on in relief of Bowman in the ninth, and allowed a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Cody Brown. A sacrifice bunt dropped down by Negron put the tying run into scoring position, while a groundout brought the Flames down to their final out, though with the tying run now only 90 feet away. The Keydets then decided they wanted no part of the #3 hitter in the Flames' lineup, Young, issuing an intentional walk to bring Tim Nanry to the plate, who was 0-for-3 on the evening. However, the Flames pinch-hit for the All-Conference designated hitter with Nate Thompson, who tied the game with a base knock up the middle. A wild pitch then brought the winning run to third base, and after issuing a four-pitch walk to P.K. Keller, Gaillard strode to the plate and ended the game on a 1-2 pitch with a hard-hit groundball just past a sprawling Shane Geisslinger at second base.
Bowman set a pair of single-season school records with his performance, as his eight strikeouts brought his season total to 110, surpassing Percy Sensabaugh's 43-year old record of 106. His eight innings also brought his season total to 99.0 innings, eclipsing Phil Hendrix's four-year old record of 97.2 innings.
