November 4, 2021
Liberty Baseball dropped the 22 schedule earlier this week. It has come to look pretty similar each year in overall structure. The Flames open the year with a 3 game set against the Florida Gators of the SEC. The Gators finished the 21 season at #26 in Warren Nolan with a 38-22 final record and 17 and 13 within the SEC. The Gators season ended in stunning fashion by going 2 and barbeque in the Gainesville region that they hosted with losses to South Florida and South Alabama. Stetson also beat the Gators late in the season 6 to 1 in a midweek tilt thought the Flames will certainly face the best arms Florida has to offer in the weekend series. Florida got a boost when the 41st pick in the draft Jud Fabian elected to return to school rather than sign with the Boston Red Sox. Fabian is a 5 tool player that has the chance to be a top 5 pick if he can get back to his earlier form. Next they face NC A&T in the home opener midweek game just like last year. A&T is usually a solid program that the Flames will need to play well to win again. Next up is a 3 game home set against former rival Winthrop of the Big South. Winthrop was one of the best programs in the Big South for a long time but has slipped in recent years and was just 19-27 last year. Another Big South foe Radford is up next. They finished at .500 with a 23 and 23 record and 167 in Warren Nolan. Many thought Karl Kuhn would never leave Brian O'Connor and the hoos but he did to take the Radford job just prior to the start of the school year with the sudden departure of long time coach Joe Raccuia who had done a good job at RU. Next up is Canissius who is no pushover as they finished at 93 in Warren Nolan at 20 and 16. They are typically one of the better teams in the northern MAAC conference that plays virtually all road games in the first month to month and a half.
Then Flames have a home 3 game series vs Scott Jackson's alma mater Campbell. The Flames opened the 21 season in Campbell losing 2 of 3 including the heartbreaking finale of the series. This will be another great test as the Camels finished 37th in Warren Nolan with a 37 and 18 record. They did some serious damage in the Starkville regional winning 2 games before falling in the regional final to Miss. State. The Flames also have a mid week road game at VCU in March and at home against High Point on May 17th. VCU was 38 and 16 and 31st in Warren Nolan last year. The Flames won 3 of the 4 matchups against the Rams last year. High Point has a great facility and a beautiful campus and used to be one of the main contenders in the Big South but they have fallen on hard times in recent years and finished 14-31 last year.
The Flames also have a great bevy of ACC games as we've become accustomed to. They have home and homes with UNC in March and Duke in March & April, VT in April & May and Wake Forest in March & May. They also have a road game with the College World Series surprise team UVA in early April.
There's 2 different ways to look at the conference games but the way I personally view it is that we don't have to play the teams like NAU and Bellarmine that are very low RPI teams that we have to sweep or they crater our RPI. Jacksonville on the road for 3 will be very challenging as we saw Jacksonville get healthy and hot down the stretch and cause problems in the regional. FGCU is also a contender and they will visit Lynchburg. Kennesaw State's coach retired but they always have talent and will be a challenger as well. Liberty took the wind out of their sails late in the season and Trevor Delaite shut them down 3 times in less than a month. North Florida is a solid team as well and they will visit Lynchburg. The Flames get Stetson on the road for 3 which will be a huge challenge as well. Then return series against Jacksonville, FGCU & KSU.
The best part about the schedule is there are few if any RPI land mines for the Flames to get through. There really isn't one game that if the Flames lose it could tank their RPI other than possibly High Point at home late in the season but that's why they play the games. It will be very difficult for the Flames to duplicate that 19 and 2 ASUN record but I don't think the Flames have any problem getting a resume that's worth of an at large with the talent on this team and this schedule.
Next up is signing day, hope to have a primer up soon.
#Risewithus
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