Region News

FROM STAFF REPORTS
Published: May 5, 2008

Lynchburg College’s softball team is seeded first in one of eight NCAA Division III regional tournaments, hosted by Methodist in Fayetteville, N.C. After receiving a first-round bye, the Hornets (36-5) will meet the winner between fourth-seeded Emory University and fifth-seeded LaGrange College on Thursday at 4 p.m.

Third-seeded Methodist will face sixth-seeded Ursinus College before second-seeded Christopher Newport University will take on seventh-seeded Neumann College (Pa.) in Thursday’s other first-round games.

Big South

Flames seeded No. 4 in tourney

The Flames’ softball team will be the No. 4 seed in the upcoming 2008 Big South Softball Championship, hosted by Winthrop at Terry Field.

Liberty finished the regular season tied with Birmingham-Southern for fourth in the league, but claimed the tiebreaker after winning the regular-season series against the Panthers.

The Flames (17-38-1, 5-10 Big South) will begin the three-day event against No. 5 seed Birmingham-Southern (29-26, 5-10 Big South) on Thursday in Game 1. Opening pitch for the first contest of the tournament is slated for 10 a.m.

Liberty’s Jenna Eatmon was also tabbed this week’s Big South Choice Hotels Player of the Week by the league office. Eatmon batted .500 during the week (8-for-16) to help the Flames post a 4-1 record.

Baseball

LU’s Grijalva earns Big South honors

Liberty’s Aaron Grijalva was selected the Big South Conference Choice Hotels Baseball Player of the Week and teammate Ryan Page was named Big South New Balance Pitcher of the Week for games played April 28-May 4. 

Grijalva, a senior leftfielder, batted .412 (7-17) with two home runs, three doubles and 10 RBIs to lead the Flames to a 3-1 record last week. Page, senior left-handed pitcher, pitched a complete-game in the Flames’ 8-2, victory against Charleston Southern last Sunday. After yielding two unearned runs in the first inning, he retired 12-straight hitters, including striking out seven-consecutive batters from the second-through-fourth frames.  Page (3-4) went on to retire 16 of 17 hitters through the sixth and finished with nine strikeouts on the day. 

Men’s basketball

LU assistant leaves for Marquette

Liberty University men’s basketball assistant coach Dale Layer has accepted an offer to join Buzz Williams’ staff at Marquette. Layer spent one season with Flames first-year coach Ritchie McKay after serving as the head coach at Colorado State for the previous seven years.

Layer had previously hired McKay when he was at Queen’s College in 1989 and later served as an assistant under him at Colorado State. Layer also hired Williams to his staff while the head coach at Colorado State and now will join his protégé at Marquette.

Womens lacrosse

Virginia

The University of Virginia received an automatic bid into the 2008 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship after winning the ACC Tournament Title and will host conference foe North Carolina in the first round on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.

The No. 3 Cavaliers (14-3) enter the tournament as the No. 4 seed after being ranked in the top-five all season.

Track & field

LC competes at Duke

Lynchburg College’s men’s and women’s track and field teams were represented at the Sunday night’s Duke University Twilight Invitational.

Scott Decker cleared 15 feet, 7 inches in the pole vault, Chris Irby ran the 800 meters in 2 minutes flat, Ryan Van Alstine ran the 5,000 in 15:05.95 and Travis Wray improved on his NCAA qualifying time in the 1,600, finishing in 3:52.92.

Jennie Pernisi clocked a time of 4:51.60 in the 1,500 for the Hornets’ women’s team.