#Risewithus

  Coach LeCroy has added Andrew Cox to the staff.  Cox also played his collegiate ball at Clemson before getting into coaching.  He served as the hitting and fielding coach at VCU the past 2 years under Coach LeCroy.  Prior to that he had spent time at Western Carolina as an assistant and also Furman in the volunteer position.  It hasn't been officially released by the University yet but Kendall Rogers tweeted earlier in the week that the Flames would hire former Ohio State co-pitching coach Andrew See to fill the Flames open pitching coach role.  See also served as the recruiting coordinator for Ohio State.  See was available because his head coach at OSU Bill Mosiello left OSU to go back to TCU as the top assistant in a very similar manner as Scott Jackson left Liberty to return to UNC.  Prior to that Mosiello spent 6 years as Clemson's pitching coach from 2016-2022.  He had consistently been ranked as a top 30 assistant coach and recruiter by D1 Baseball and PG in various ra

  The Summer wood bat leagues are beginning to wind down.  The  Flames have several incoming players and some players transferring in that have played this summer.   Jack McMullan - Playing for the Charlottesville Tom Sox and has hit .170 with 1 HR and 8 RBI's in 47 AB's. Ben Roberts - Roberts is playing for Tri State in the Appy league.  He's made 6 appearances totaling just over 10 IP with a 2.53 ERA and a whopping 22 strikeouts which is good for almost 2.2 K/IP.   Nick Barone- Barone is playing for the Rockford Rivets in the Summer league primarily in the OF.  He's hit .325 with 1 HR and 18 RBI's.   Riley Decandido -.  Candido has had a nice summer in the Cal Ripken league playing for the Alexandria Aces while hitting .325 with 1 HR and 34 RBI's.  Spencer Williams - Williams is playing for New Market in the Appy League.  He's got a 3.52 ERA in 30 2/3 IP with 34 K's.   Terry Kaler - Kaler has a 7.36 ERA in just over 7 IP for Mooresville of the Southern

  Draft Cole Hertzler - Hertzler was taken in the 5th round by the Astros at pick #163 and has signed for $396,200.   Garrett Horn - Garrett Horn who was drafted in the 6th Rd and pick # 195 and signed for $250,000 while rehabbing from TJ Surgery.   Congrats to both of those guys.  Would have loved to see what 2024 looked like with a healthy Horn the whole season.  Also cost him a bit of money in the draft but the timing of the injury left him virtually no choice but to sign.  He would have come back very late in the College Baseball season had he returned for 25.   MILB Liberty has quite a few players on the verge of getting the call to the show.  This is the most collection of talent at the higher level of the minors with a legitimate chance to make the show that the program has seen in a long time.  The bulk of it are pitchers from the 2019-2022 era.   Fraser Ellard - Ellard has ascended to AAA Charlotte in the White Sox organization where he has also made the organizations top 3

  When a coaching change takes place in 2024 in any sport there's going to be all kinds of roster movement.  Ian Mccaw moved about as quickly as he possibly could to make a new head coach hire in Bradley LeCroy but that didn't stop a good portion of the top returning production from entering the portal.  The Flames faired fairly well in keeping their incoming commitments together other than their top HS signee Sawyer Black.  Coach LeCroy continues to work to finalize his coaching staff and the roster and we're just a little over 3 weeks away from the start of classes.  There's always the potential for some of those that have entered the portal but have not yet committed or found a home to their liking to return.  Here's a look at below on where things stand as of late Sunday evening. Portal - Entered Todd Hudson - Hudson entered the portal and committed to Miami even before Scott Jackson had resigned Brayden Horton - Horton entered the portal after the change and fo

Liberty announced the replacement for Scott Jackson who departed after 8 season at the helm of Liberty Baseball.  Bradley LeCroy will head to Lynchburg as the 8th head coach of Liberty after a 2 year run as the Head Coach at VCU.  LeCroy took over late in the 2022 cycle after Shawn Stiffler left VCU for the Notre Dame job.  He was able to patch things together despite the roster getting gutted by the portal to finish 25-30 and #221 in the RPI in year 1.  The Rams took a big jump to 38-23 in year 2 while finishing 73rd in the RPI.  VCU won the A10 tournament to springboard the program into the Greenville regional where they won the 1st game against Wake Forest 1-0 before falling to Evansville and ECU.  He and his pitching coach Sean Thompson also worked with former Flame Christian Gordon who turned in a 3.62 ERA in 79 2/3 IP.  I'm not 100% sure but Gordon could have a COVID year left.  VCU also swept Liberty this year in their head to head matchups.  The Rams went 5-5 against P4 opp

  This is the 2nd of a 4 part summer blog posting that will include a Summer league update on the Flames that are in action and also an update on the Flames that are active in the minor leagues.  Last week I posted the subtractions and the additions to the roster as of Saturday.  I'd still expect the Flames to add another player or 2 from the portal if they can land the right fit for the program that also matches a need.  That being said let's take a look at how it could all come together next year and what went right and what went wrong plus some notes on the schedule and Blair and Kepley.   This year it was pretty obvious to break down what went wrong.  First and foremost the Flames suffered 3 crucial season ending injuries to Hillier, Horn & Butler.  Further, Horton's injury essentially cost him the first month and Rabon missed a month in the crucial portion of the conference slate.  Offensively, this was one of the best if not the best offensive clubs in recent memo