February 27, 2022


Liberty 13 

Winthrop 2

Liberty: 6 and 1

Warren Nolan RPI :15


Liberty swept a 3-game weekend set in dominating fashion over Winthrop.  The Flames dominated their former Big South foes in all facets of the game.  Cumulatively, the Flames outscored the Eagles 29-4 on the weekend.  Liberty wanted to see the starters go deeper this weekend and they got their wish.  Adametz and Alba went 6 innings each and Gibson went 5 2/3.   The Flames staff ERA sits at 2.61 through 7 games and the opposition is 7.63.  Offensively, the bats came alive over the weekend as Derek Orndorff stayed red hot over the weekend and now is 5/5 in SB attempts with 5 HR's and 9 RBI's and a BA of .476 and slugging 1.190.  I haven't seen anyone on a tear like this since Ryan Seiz back in the day.  Cam Foster continues to show he's no ordinary Freshman.  Friday WU had brought the infield in with 2 on when Foster smashed a 3-run shot in the bullpen.  He's hitting .320 with 1 HR and 10 RBI.  The bullpen dominated all weekend other than 2 runs given up by Cole Garrett late in the game today when the game was long out of reach for the Eagles.  Gulakowski also looks like he may have entered the red-hot zone after today as well.  

Takeaways

Ranking - The rankings and talent are legitimate.  You wanted to see the Flames step up this week after getting ranked and playing in the hostile SEC environment.  They stayed focused and really dominated 2 inferior opponents in all 4 home games this week.  That's exactly what good teams do.  They never let any of these teams up off the mat.  

Injuries - The flames have battled a few early season injuries including Germanowski, Majkowski, Guy (out for season) & now Lazzaro who missed the entire weekend and is DTD from what I'm told.  

Newcomers - The coaching staff crushed this past year's recruiting cycle.  All of the transfers are contributing at a high-level including Hill, Lazzaro, Orndorff, Miller & Alba and Majkowski has a single in his lone AB as he's battled injury.  Freshman wise Foster & Horn have already shown super high end potential early and will factor in as starting pieces.  Keeter is another that has made the most of his opportunity.  He made an incredible catch in the OF and the guy just gets on base and finds a way on base fairly regularly so far.  Hertzler, Shieh and Mcneal got in on the action today as well and all can be key pieces to the future of the program.  

Power - Liberty hasn't flashed a ton of power as a team over the last 15 years or so other than in spots.  This team is going to change all that as they have 11 HR's already and 24 total XBH's through 7 games.  Logan Mathieu hasn't even got in on the fun yet and he hit 15 last year.  This is the cold weather part of the year!

Depth - One thing we had not gotten to see much yet was what kind of depth the Flames had offensively and defensively.  The starting 9 was pretty much unchanged through the first 4 games.  Hillier hit the ball well all fall and spring and the Flames want to get him some ABs.  He didn't disappoint as he followed up Gulakowski's shot with a solo HR of his own.  Also, with Lazzaro going down Ty Peters was pressed into action and went 2 for 10 with a run and an RBI over the weekend and handled all of his chances cleanly at SS.  The Flames have some flexibility with Gulakowski playing some 1st and Betts can still play OF as well. 

On Deck

The Flames will rekindle another Big South rivalry as they head to Radford for a midweek matchup Tuesday.  Radford is 2 and 5 to start the season with wins over Oral Roberts and Bucknell and losses to Davidson, Bucknell (2), Tennessee Tech & South Alabama.  I would expect Horn or Cumming to get the start in this one.  Liberty still has plenty of dudes left and will likely have everyone available but i'm sure the Flames will want to get Horn, Cumming & Willard the majority of the work in the first 6 or 7 innings.  


Brent

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