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Liberty Baseball Notebook

Everyone was left with a sour taste in their mouth following the weekend series down in Jacksonville Alabama that saw Liberty lose the final 2 games after winning the opener.  The controversy of course centered around Ben Blair being accidentally left off the active roster for the weekend.  JSU likely became aware of it Friday and researched the issue and waited until Blair had thrown his first pitch of the game to bring up the discrepancy which led to Liberty forfeiting the game.  My tweet reporting on the forfeit now has 111k interactions as of 03/31/25 which is an insane number and by far the most viewed tweet I've ever had.  Opinions varied on the topic throughout the last several days.  The bottom line is JSU had every right to make that decision, and it was probably the right call to make.  However, nobody will ever feel good about winning that way and Liberty has to be sick to their stomach looking back on it.  You could make the argument that i...
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Quarter Point of the Season

  Record:  11-5          Team ERA: 3.96 Home: 7-2               Team BA: .258 Road: 4-3                Team Fielding %: .974 RPI: 99                    Team OPS: .791 Quad 1: 2-5 Quad 2: 1-0 Quad 3: 2-0 Quad 4: 6-0 CUSA Rank: 105h Average RPI .5097 SOS: 172 We're just under 1 month into the 2025 season and Liberty sits at 11-5 with 1 more road Midweek game at #10 Clemson before a weekend series home with Princeton.  Things really could not have gone much better realistically other than winning 1 more game against Xavier which would have won that series.  Liberty hangs tough and has frequently come back from early deficits.  Ben Blair has looked every bit the part of the ace that Liberty needed him to be.  Mathieson has pitched very well and has solidified himself as a starter for the Flames.  Overall...
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2025 Season Preview

The Bradley LeCroy era will kick off with a 3-game set in Lynchburg against St Johns.  Naturally, a potential snow event of 3-6 inches is projected on Tuesday so hopefully the games aren't impacted.  The Flames do of course have turf which will certainly help efforts, although the weekend forecast currently shows rain on Saturday and Sunday as well.  For the first time in a bit the Flames are picked 5th of 10 teams in CUSA and have just 1 pre-season All Conference team rep in SP Ben Blair.  That shouldn't be a surprise given the turnover the program faced after the coaching change which was fairly late in the process.  We were able to see the revamped LeCroy Flames 3 times in the Fall against VT, Longwood & a Canadian HS National team.  The Flames smashed VT and showed what the lineup could look like if the Fall carries over into the Spring.  The Flames won't feel the weight of being the favorite this year and can hunt for once.  That being sa...
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St John's Preview

Opening day is finally here.  The Bradley LeCroy era will begin this week at home against Big East power St Johns for a 3-game set in Lynchburg.  The Red Storm were picked 3rd in the Big East behind UCONN & Xavier, both of whom are ranked in the mid major top 25.  The Red Storm also received 1 first place vote and placed 4 players on the pre-season All Big East team.  They won the Big East last year and boasted a 12-10 road record which is always important for teams for the NE that will play the bulk of the first month on the road.  The Red Storm have long been a power at the Mid Major level under long time HC Ed Blankmeyer before he stepped away in 2020.  18-year assistant Mike Hampton replaced him and has restored the Red Storm to prominence for the first time since 2018 when they won 40 games.  The 2 teams faced off a number of times in the Jim Toman & Scott Jackson eras with the Johnnies leading the all-time series 8-6 including a sweep of ...
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Liberty Football 2025 Signing Class plus Roster & Bowl implications

  Liberty signed 14 HS seniors which has a composite ranking of #84 in the nation on 247 sports.  It's good for the 2nd Class in CUSA behind UTEP although UTEP signed 27 total players.  Liberty's average player ranking is significantly higher than UTEP.  That shouldn't come as a surprise as the coaching staff has done a good job with HS recruits each of the last 2 years including flipping 3 high end Coastal commits when the staff came over.  The Flames HS signees will typically try to mirror what they are losing in the way of graduations.  Portal additions will typically be to fill roster defections via the portal.   Key Notes Sam Cohen is the highlight of the class for me.  He's the 21st ranked player in the state of VA per 247.  The next highest ranked player to sign with a non P4 was #43 Ksaan Farrar from VA Beach to Uconn.  Cohen had plenty of P4 suitors, so he clearly wanted to join the Flames and joins at a position of need on...
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Liberty Baseball 2025 Signing Class

Last week Coach LeCroy & Co. inked their first signing class since they took over the program back in June.  In all Liberty Baseball signed 5 high school players and 2 JUCO prospects.  This class changed quite a bit obviously with the change in the coaching staff but several players did hold over.  Rosters will expand to 34 next  year and the Flames will certainly dip into the portal as well.   HS Xavier McCoury - McCoury is a LH hitting MIF from Providence High School in the Charlotte area.  McCoury is 5'10 160 LB's and was a former USF commit.  McCoury is an elite athlete and features an above average hit tool.  He could impact the club day 1 as he comes from a powerhouse HS program.   Jackson Evans - Evans is a 6'3 205 LB RHP that committed to the Flames and Tyler Robinson back in May.  The 2 sides stayed together after the coaching change and Evans wound up signing with the Flames.  Another big physical righty with...
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Liberty @ VT - Fall Scrimmage

 The new look Liberty Flames took the field under new coach Bradley LeCroy for the first time Wednesday afternoon in Blacksburg.   The revamped lineup pounded out 24 runs in the 2 games that totaled 15 innings.  The Flames won Game 1 16-10 and Game 2 (6 innings) 8-2.  Liberty lost a ton of impact players via the transfer portal after former coach Scott Jackson departed for UNC.  Only Camden Troyer, Tanner Marsh & John Simmons return from last years top 100 offensive attack.  Juco transfer Easton Swofford paced the offensive attack with 6 hits including 3 doubles and a homer.  Mikey Robertson, Camden Troyer, Riley Decandido, Tucker Moore & Jaxon Sorenson had multiple hits.  Liberty also played error free ball over the course of the 15 innings which is a welcomed change as defensive miscues have plagued the Flames on the infield the last couple years.  Liberty threw 14 pitchers in the 2 games.  Blair & Mclaughlin allowed 8...
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