Lynchburg College gets win in ODAC tourney opener

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: April 25, 2008

Ronnie LaBrie has spent the spring crushing Old Dominion Athletic Conference pitchers. Thursday, he spent part of the first inning destroying an aluminum bat.

It seems like nothing is safe when LaBrie steps to the dish these days.

The Lynchburg College shortstop ripped three doubles in the Hornets’ 7-2 win against Hampden-Sydney in Game 1 of the double-elimination tournament at City Stadium, none more impressive than his first inning knock.

On a fastball that appeared to jam him inside, LaBrie shortened up his swing and crushed the ball to left center field.

The impact was so forceful that the top popped off the bat and a huge crack formed on the bat’s barrel.

“His bat’s hot right now,” Lynchburg coach Percy Abell said. “He’s had very few down games. It goes back to patience. People tend to pitch around him. They throw a lot of junk at him. He’s patient, patient, patient. When he gets one in the zone, he hits it..”

LaBrie scored twice and drove in a run as the Hornets (29-9) survived an early scare from the sixth-seeded Tigers, who seem to always be in peak form come the postseason.

In 2005, the Tigers (17-24) were the tournament’s No. 6 seed and won the championship on their way to a berth in the NCAA Division III World Series.

So no one in the Lynchburg dugout was taking HSC lightly.

“Their history is that they really come and get it done in the tournament,” Abell said. “We knew that regardless of seeding, they were a quality ballclub, and that we would have to play well.”

Hampden-Sydney has been one of the few teams to have success against Hornets starter Joe Devlin, who came win with a 7-0 record and a 0.74 ERA.

In a game earlier this month at HSC, the Tigers had three hits and scored two runs against Devlin, who allowed just eight runs the entire season.

The Tigers got after Devlin again Thursday, collecting four hits in the first three innings. After Lynchburg took a 1-0 lead on a Jon Crews sacrifice fly in the first, HSC tied it in the second on Ben Brawley’s RBI double.

The Tigers nearly took the lead, but the Hornets threw out Daniel Prieto, who was trying to score on Brawley’s double, on an extremely close play at the plate.

Brawley was thrown out trying to reach third on A.J. Prill’s groundout. With runners at the corners with two outs, Nick Price tried to steal second, but Alnor Rodriguez was called for batter interference on catcher Ryan Litz’s throw, ending the inning.

“That turned the game around,” Devlin said. “That could have put them up right there. Luckily, we got the out and were able to come back and score some runs.”

The Hornets took the lead in the third when LaBrie and Crews hit back-to-back doubles. In the fourth, Daniel Haugh hit an RBI single and LaBrie knocked in a run with his third double, and the Hornets were in control 4-1.

Crews’ double was his 19th this year, breaking a three-year-old school record.

Lynchburg forced Hampden-Sydney starter Daniel Hadra to work deep into counts, and by the end of the fourth inning, Hadra had thrown 100 pitches.

The Hornets took advantage of the fatigued starter, scoring six of their seven runs in innings three through six.

“A lot of us had a good approach,” LaBrie said. “One through nine, we have great hitters throughout the lineup. If we all come around, we’re going to be dangerous.”

Lynchburg will face the loser of the Randolph-Macon-Bridgewater game at 3 p.m. today in Game 5 of the tournament.

Hampden-Sydney will meet the loser of the Virginia Wesleyan-Washington & Lee game in an elimination game today at 11:00 a.m.