Liberty’s Page’s ‘slurve’ too much for Keydets

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: April 21, 2008

In the two-plus years since Ryan Page threw the lone shutout of his Liberty career, the lefthander has fought through all sorts of trouble.

Arm problems forced an early end to Page’s sophomore season in 2005. In Page’s junior year, he bounced all over the pitching staff, serving as a closer, middle reliever and starter.

Early in his senior season, he pitched so poorly that first-year Flames coach yanked him from the weekend rotation.

But arduous work with pitching coach Scott Jackson helped Page retool his repertoire. Once a fastball-changeup pitcher, Page has regained command of his breaking ball, a slurve that’s more slider some days, more curve on others.

The slurve broke low Sunday against VMI, and the Keydets spent most of the afternoon flailing helplessly at it. Page threw his first complete game since the shutout in 2005, scattering seven hits and striking out eight as the Flames beat VMI 6-1 to win the rubber match of the three-game series.

Page (3-4) allowed only three VMI baserunners to reach third and walked none. As a Sunday starter for the Flames in Big South games, Page has been outstanding, allowing four earned runs in 22 2/3 innings.

In those starts, he’s struck out 18 and walked one.

“The big key is throwing strikes,” Liberty coach Jim Toman said. “He’s throwing three pitches, so that’s helped him out a little bit.”

Sunday’s showing was typical of Page’s recent outings. He kept strong command of his fastball and change, but challenged the Keydets with a slider around the knees.

The breaking ball wasn’t working in Page’s first two starts this year, when he allowed seven earned runs in seven innings against Albany and Rider.

“My arm has felt live,” Page said. “My slider has been working. I’ve been throwing it for strikes, which has been a big help. Before, my slider wasn’t consistent. That was my downfall.”

After a slow start, Liberty (20-19, 8-4 Big South) gave Page plenty of run support. Down 1-0 in the fifth, David Giammaresi hit his first triple of the season and scored on Garrett Young’s groundout.

LU strung together three straight hits in the sixth to take the lead. Tommy Bussey led off with a double and scored on Errol Hollinger’s single to right center. P.K. Keller ripped another single to score Hollinger, and Liberty led 3-1.

Liberty’s batters and coaching staff noticed that VMI pitcher Michael Bowman was struggling to throw his slider in the sixth. Bowman kept looking at his hand, as if a blister was bothering him. With his grip suspect, he threw more fastballs.

“You could tell something was wrong with his finger,” Keller said. “I didn’t want to hit his slider. He didn’t throw it the first pitch, and I expected to see it the second pitch, but he came with a fastball. I just waited for it.”

Sunday’s victory was important for the Flames, who play two of their final three Big South series away from Worthington.

Liberty plays 11 of its next 12 on the road, including Big South sets at Winthrop and Charleston Southern.

A second home series loss (LU lost two of three to first-place Coastal Carolina) would have put the Flames in serious danger of falling into one of the two conference tournament play-in games.

The win put Liberty ahead of VMI (20-19, 9-5) in the loss column and gave the Flames the season tiebreaker with the Keydets.

“I told the guys this was the biggest game of the year,” Toman said. “And they responded.”