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Liberty baseball slides past Stockdale

Sanders' game-winning HR lifts Liberty to 10-8 win over Stockdale

BY ZACH EWING, Californian staff writer
zewing@bakersfield.com | Thursday, Apr 24 2008 11:13 PM

Last Updated: Friday, Apr 25 2008 7:47 AM

Grant Sanders knows gas.

For one thing, his initials are G. A. S. For another, his nickname is Tootie -- he thinks it came from when he was young, had some indigestion, and, well, you get the idea.

So it came as a surprise that when Sanders hit a towering, sixth-inning home run to left field to lift Liberty to a 10-8 victory against Stockdale on Thursday, it came on a full-count breaking ball.

"My first at-bat against (Stockdale reliever Jeff Dolinar), he threw me four of those," Sanders said. "So I knew he was going to come back with it, so I just sat back."

Tootie's home run actually was a relatively normal play in a game that featured a little bit of everything. To wit: two fielder's interference calls on Liberty, a catcher's interference on Stockdale, 13 walks, 11 strikeouts, five errors, a six-run rally and a run scoring on a balk.

The outcome, though, was just what Liberty was looking for in a showdown of the Southwest and Southeast Yosemite League leaders. Stockdale is ranked fourth in the state by Cal Hi Sports; Liberty has dominated the SEYL for years.

"We had it all in this ballgame," Liberty coach Tony Mills said. "... We've been looking forward to playing these guys, because they're the best team down here. And we were excited to play these guys today.

"... On any given day, we can beat anybody."

Liberty (16-9-1) took the lead in the first inning on shortstop Chris Neal's two-run home run to dead center field. Neal nearly hit another two innings later, but Stockdale center fielder Imaad Nuriddin made a Torii Hunter-esque leaping catch to rob him.

Still, Liberty scored four times in the second and twice more in the third on Andrew Letourneau's two-run single to take an 8-2 lead. Neal's long flyout would have made it 11-2 if not for Nuriddin.

Sanders and Byron Campbell each had two hits and a homer, Letourneau had two singles and Jared Lewis had three for Liberty.

Stockdale starter K.C. Hobson, who's been battling shoulder tendinitis, lasted just three innings in his first start in a week.

"I don't want to make excuses for him," Stockdale coach Dan Lemon said. "Just not his day."

But the Mustangs (24-2) weren't about to go down easily. Three walks, a Liberty error and doubles from Greg Osteen and Dolinar helped them to a six-run, game-tying rally in the fifth.

Osteen finished with two hits and two RBIs.

"You leave it up, you get in trouble," said Liberty starter Greg Ziegeler, who until that point had cruised. "Stockdale's an awesome team, and I battled it out. It was pretty hard."

But Ziegeler settled down after that, allowing just one hit and notching three of his five strikeouts in the final two innings of a 131-pitch complete game.

"I actually felt better in the later innings," said Ziegeler, a senior left-hander.

From there, it was up to Sanders, who laid off the gas and hit the breaking ball.

"I had a feeling, because Tootie's really had a great week," Mills said. "... He's been having great batting-practice sessions and great at-bats. I had a feeling he might do something special today."