Norfolk State knocks off slumping LU

By Chris Lang

Published: April 2, 2008

There was no sense in mincing words after this one.

“It’s pretty bad,” Liberty first baseman David Giammaresi said after his team lost 8-5 to Norfolk State on Wednesday at Worthington Stadium. “I’ve been here for five years now, and it’s one of the worst losses.

“But maybe this will be our bottom-out point, and we’ll shoot up from here.”

No disrespect intended to the Spartans, who improved to 12-10 with the victory. But when Liberty, a team from a conference that at times sends multiple teams to the NCAA regionals loses at home to a MEAC team that came in winless on the road, there’s cause for concern.

And the biggest of those concerns is defense, or Liberty’s lack of it. The Flames (12-14) finished a five-game homestand with a 1-4 record and a whopping 17 errors. Liberty committed four more Wednesday, including two that helped the Spartans rally from a two-run deficit in the eighth inning.

With LU up 5-3, Flames pitcher Joe Steinwedell plunked Billy Canady to lead off the eighth. Canady stole second, and catcher Errol Hollinger’s errant throw to try to nab Canaday at second allowed him to reach third.

John Lynch drove Canady in with an infield single as Liberty third baseman Cody Brown struggled to get the ball out of his glove before throwing to first.

Moriba George reached on an error by Liberty shortstop Aaron Phillips, and John Boyd hit a two-run single with one out to drive in Lynch and Moriba for a 6-5 Norfolk State lead.

“I’d like to have about two weeks of hitting them ground balls and fly balls and pop-ups and all that,” Liberty coach Jim Toman said. “But we don’t. We just have to fight through it.”

Norfolk State tacked on two runs in the ninth, and Joey Seal retired the Flames in order to end the game.

Save for a four-run sixth inning, Liberty didn’t get much going offensively, either. LU recorded three of its seven hits — all singles — in that inning. Cody Brown and Jeff Jefferson each drove in a run, and Garrett Young reached on an error that allowed two more runs to score as LU took a 5-3 lead.

Considering Liberty’s injury situation, the offensive struggles aren’t surprising. P.K. Keller sprained a knee running the bases Tuesday against William & Mary, and Aaron Grijalva is still out with a groin injury.

That left Toman little to work with in terms of filling out a lineup card. Joseph Feeley and Jason Love, who had a combined 28 at-bats before Wednesday, started against the Spartans.

“The gun is not quite full right now,” Toman said. “We don’t have enough bullets in it.”

Also, Liberty reliever Dane Beakler left Tuesday’s game against William & Mary with soreness and scar tissue in his pitching elbow.

“He’s out for a while,” Toman said.

Liberty hits the road for eight of its next nine games, including a three-game Big South series at UNC Asheville this weekend and at Radford next weekend.

Toman tried to stay positive with his group during a long meeting in the outfield after Wednesday’s loss.

“I told them we’re leaving tomorrow for Asheville,” he said. “We’ll start fresh on the road and see if we can’t get after it. Something good is bound to happen.

“We haven’t had a lot of positive things happening lately. But we’re going to keep working at it, keep grinding it out.”