Move to mound rescues Liberty University, Teufel

Big South baseball tournament

McCormick Field, Asheville, N.C.

No. 3 Liberty vs. No. 4 Radford

Wednesday, 7 p.m.

When infielder Shawn Teufel asked Liberty baseball coach Jim Toman to let him try his hand at pitching, his motives were simple. He just wanted to play.

Teufel had no idea of the long-term ramifications of the request. He couldn’t have known that a good chunk of the Flames’ pitching staff would go down with season-ending injuries, that he’d end the year tied for second in the Big South in victories.

Heck, he figured he’d be a mid-week starter and weekend reliever when the season started. Instead, he’ll be the starter Wednesday in Asheville, N.C., as third-seeded Liberty opens Big South tournament play against Radford.

As it turns out, the move to pitcher did more than save Teufel’s college baseball career.

It helped save Liberty’s season.

“I’d hate to think where we’d be without him,” LU pitching coach Garrett Quinn said.

Shawn, the son of former major leaguer Tim Teufel, hit .179 in 123 career at-bats and was used mostly as a late-game de-fensive substitution during his first two seasons.

Teufel missed nearly all of 2008 with an injury and redshirted. Once he saw the recruiting class Toman put together, he realized he had little chance of competing for a spot in the infield.

He pitched some in high school, so the thought of transitioning wasn’t so far fetched.

“Why not take a shot at pitching?” he said.

Toman agreed and the transition began. Teufel earned an invite to the prestigious Alaska Baseball League and spent the summer with the Fairbanks AIA Fire, where he went 0-1 with a 3.09 ERA in eight appearances (seven starts).

When he returned to the lower 48, Teufel came back with the knowledge that he could get top-notch college hitters out. He doesn’t have an overpowering fastball. It tops out between 86-88 mph. But he’s got solid command of a devastating changeup, one that’s a good 13 mph slower than his fastball.

Teufel also throws a looping curveball and began tinkering with a cutter.

Four pitches. All with command. Not bad for a guy who hadn’t been on the bump in three years.

“I knew he was going to be good,” LU catcher Errol Hollinger said. “All through the fall, he threw strikes. He’s stepped up and definitely has been a huge benefit to our staff.”

Teufel’s role increased once two-thirds of the weekend rotation (Mark Swanson and Dustin Umberger) went down with injuries. He is second on the team with 65 2/3 innings. Only Steven Evans has thrown more. Teufel’s eight victories and 67 strikeouts are team highs.

“I just wanted to come back and see how I could help the team,” Teufel said. “It just worked out to where I got a shot.”

Teufel was born to be a baseball player, it seemed. When he was a baby, he was in the stands for all seven games of the 1986 World Series, though he doesn’t remember Bill Buckner’s infamous error.

“I was only two months old,” he said with a laugh.

His father’s playing career continued until 1993, when Shawn was seven. At that point, Shawn was more interested in playing hockey than baseball.

(To contrast, teammate Cody Brown’s father Keith was a longtime member of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks.)

“I mixed it up and tried a lot of different things,” Shawn said. “But I liked baseball.”

Tim put his post-baseball career on hold until Shawn was done with high school and helped Shawn become one of the better players in the Palm Beach, Fla., area. Tim is back in the Mets’ organization now, serving as the manager of the St. Lucie Mets in the Florida State League. He remains a valuable resource for Shawn.

“We talk after every start,” Shawn said. “We go through some of the batters and some of the sequences. He gives me a lot of positive reinforcement.”

Teufel entered this season as an experiment, a curiosity of sorts. It was a low-risk move for Toman, and it’s proved to be a high-reward move for both Teufel and the Flames.

Said Quinn: “I don’t think you can overstate his value. He’s not just a guy who’s eating up innings out there.

“He’s getting people out.”