February 20, 2022

Liberty 5

#9 Florida 3

Liberty 2-1

Liberty went into Gainesville and drained the swamp in route to taking 2 of 3 from the Gators.  Max Alba made his Flames debut and cruised through the first 3 innings before running into trouble in the 4th.  Alba had a good looking 2 seamer going along with his fastball before he got touched up for 3 runs and some loud contact in the 4th.  Liberty would answer in the 5th after prized freshman lefty Pierce Coppola had shut the Flames offense down for the most part in the early innings.  Liberty would score 3 in the 5th and 1 each in the 6th and 7th to produce the final score.  Brady Gulakowski paced the offense while going 3 for 5 with a 2 run dinger and 3 RBI's.  Aaron Anderson had a double and a 2 run HR for the Flames.  Gray Betts chipped in 2 hits and Hill, Foster & Orndorff all had 1 each as well.  The Flames also worked 6 BB's from the Gator pitching staff which kept pressure on the bullpen particularly all day. The bullpen stole the show again though as Beamon, Horn, Fluharty, Willard & Hungate would all have scoreless appearances to get the Flames the win.  Beamon & Horn made their collegiate debuts totaling 2 1/3 scoreless innings and 4 strikeouts between the 2.  Fluharty & Hungate looked dominate again in their second straight day of usage.  Hungate slammed the door in the 9th for his second save in as many days.  It never felt like the Gators were a threat against this deep and talented bullpen.  


Takeaways

-The "dude crew" was dominant again for the Flames.  We saw 4 more pitchers today for the first time and all showed flashes including 2 collegiate debuts.  I came away very encouraged with Beamon & Willard who were highly effective in high leverage situations.  Let's face it.  The new wave of baseball is all about limiting looks on a pitcher.  We have the depth, and the numbers clearly say the that hitters success against pitchers increases with each appearance.  I'm not sure how many times we will see the Flames push the starters beyond 5 or 6 innings because of this fact and just how deep the staff is.  You need to get all these guys innings each week to keep them sharp.

-Still more left, Riley & Miller didn't even get in a game this weekend and Germanowski is slated to return from a minor arm surgery sometime in March.  Add in 3 more high leverage guys to the dude crew with what we saw this weekend and that is as many as 13 guys that could see meaningful innings this year.  

-This weekend caught the nations attention.  There are any number of tweets from the who's who of college baseball.  Also, man Florida is hated by everyone else in state.  Lots of FSU, UCF & and an occasional Miami fan chirping in the Gators mentions.  Lots of talk about a possible ranking (which is a foregone conclusion at this point).  Let's be honest, if you take Hunter Barco off Florida the Flames probably sweep the Gators.  I would expect Liberty to land in the 17-20 range in the polls this week pending a few west coast results.  

-Offensively, the Flames are showing a little bit of everything.  They hit 3 homeruns this weekend and Logan Mathieu who hit 15 last year wasn't among them.  The bottom of the order has shown a penchant to get on base.  Lazzaro had 2 more walks today and Keeter was on base several times the first 2 games.  It feels like the Flames can beat you in a number of ways this year. 

-Defensively, the leather was being flashed around again.  Mathieu made a diving stab on the first play of the game and Keeter tracked down a shot to LF.  Lazarro continues to look silky smooth at SS. 


On Deck,

Liberty will open up the home portion of the schedule Wednesday at 4 PM against NC A&T.  A&T got swept this weekend in Greensboro by the University of Dayton.  The Flames will open up at home vs the Aggies for the second consecutive year.  A&T is usually a decent program so this weekend's results are a bit surprising.  I would look for Dylan Cumming or Garret Horn to get the start and possibly even Willard who started some for the Flames last year.  

That was a fun way to start the season.  This year has a chance to be something special.  Hope to see everybody come out to support the Flames Wednesday.  They deserve it.  I don't see too many other sports on campus that could go on the road in SEC country and beat a top 10 team 2 out 3 times in their home park while they are opening up a new stadium with capacity crowds on hand.  


#Risewithus


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