Record : 15-7
Asun : 3-3
Liberty went 1 and 3 in the 4 games over the past week in dropping a home game against Wake Forest and losing 2 of 3 to the Stetson Hatters at home over the weekend. Wake Forest is the best hitting team I have seen in some time. Maybe the best hitting team I have ever seen in person in Lynchburg. 1-9 that lineup could flat out hit the ball. The Flames also lost Gray Betts to a concussion on a foul ball to the facemask. Friday night the Flames would lose conference player of the year favorite Derek Orndorff to a concussion as well after he was hit in the head in a very scary moment. Cade Hungate would blow his first save of the year but the Flames would come back to win on a walkoff single from catcher Three Hillier. Saturday, The Flames would lose 5 to 3 in another hard fought game that saw Liberty strand 11 runners on base. Trey Gibson would again fall behind early and exit after 2 innings and 4 runs 3 of which were earned. Freshman Garrett Horn would shine in 5 innings of scoreless relief while racking up 10 strikeouts to lower his ERA to 1.02 for the season. Sunday was more of the same for the Flames as Alba would get knocked around for 3 earned and was chased after the 3rd inning again. The lone bright spot for the Flames was Trey Carter who tossed 4 scoreless innings in relief. Stetson is a solid ASUN program that has produced stud MLB pitchers Corey Kluber and Jacob Degrom. This program has a pretty strong pedigree but came into the weekend at 0 and 3 in league play. The last week has surely left a bitter taste in the Flames mouth headed into 4 road games this week.
Around the ASUN
I wrote about the new divisions in the ASUN back in the fall. It was clear from day 1 that the East side was absolutely loaded and that has shown to be the case thus far. KSU is 6 and 0 and has been a hitting machine. They had 6 very talented hitters last year but the lineup had no depth. This year appears to be a different story. FGCU is 5 and 1 and looks to be a threat as well. Surprisingly, Jacksonville has gotten off to a 1 and 5 start to the season coming off the regional run and a fairly solid non conference performance. The West has 3 awful teams in Lipscomb, NAU & Bellarmine that you simply don't want on the schedule. Combined they are 3 and 15 and if you lose a game like that you will drop 25 to 30 spots in the RPI. The Flames are on the side of the equation they want to be on for RPI purposes but it won't be easy. The Florida teams always have talent and they have begun to utilize the transfer portal just like the Flames have.
By the numbers
62- The Flames have fallen in the RPI
22- Ranked by Baseball America, unranked in the other polls.
5- Flames to record their first collegiate hit in 2022
8 - true freshman to play this year
4.35 - average innings per start (from weekend starters)
#4 - in the 11point7 mid major poll (down from #2)
Flip the script
Things can change in a hurry. Liberty's RPI, conference record & overall record took a beating the last couple weeks. That being said, it's not time to panic. The same team that raced out to to an 11 and 1 start and won 3 of 4 against top 25 competition still resides in Lynchburg. The struggles can be traced back to 4 key areas and 1 key thought to remember.
First - Get healthy, Betts & Orndorff's losses can't be overstated. Germanowski can be another dude at the end of the pen.
Second - The starters have got to go deeper in the games. Particularly the weekend starters who have averaged just 4.35 innings per start and that is mostly thanks to Joe Adametz who is averaging over 5 innings per start. The Flames don't need these guys to go 9 like we have seen the starters pushed in the past but they need 5 or 6 innings out of them. The bullpen has shown some chinks in the armor recently in large part to overuse.
Third - Start fast, Liberty is going with the freshman Jeremy Beamon to start tomorrow @ Duke. Liberty needs the starter to hang a few zeros on the board and give the offense a chance to put the Flames out front. Playing from behind is a challenge for any team. Beamon has been nasty in his work thus far.
Fourth - Clutch hitting, Liberty has had a lot of chances in recent games but has struggled to get the big hit. In the first 12 games they got the big hit almost every time.
Finally - #WEGOTDUDES. Somewhere along the way Liberty has lost that swagger that they had early. It's time to find it and get this thing back on track.
Injury update
Ty Germanowski - Made his season debut with a third of an inning while allowing a run and recording a strikeout. It will be interesting to see if he and Tim Miller can carve out a role here in relief with the Flames starters struggling to go deep. Germanowski has the kind of stuff that can play at the back end of the bullpen as we saw in the final game of the regional against Tennessee.
Orndorff & Betts - Sounds like both are improving but no update was giving on when either could return to the lineup. It wouldn't surprise me at all if both were held out until the weekend at least.
On Deck:
Liberty will hit the road for 4 this week starting Tuesday afternoon at Duke. The Blue Devils will no doubt be out for revenge after the Flames smashed Duke twice in the Knoxville regional eliminating them from the tournament. Duke is 12 and 12 on the year and sits at #104 in the RPI. Duke has played 9 games against top 20 ACC competition in UVA, UNC & FSU and has lost 2 of 3 in all 3 series. They also lost 2 of 3 to Baylor in a non conference matchup and beat WVU in a midweek matchup. So 8 of their 12 losses have come at the hands of very good teams. After that, Liberty will head back down I95 to Jacksonville for the second time in 3 weeks. The Dolphins are 12 and 10 and # 80 in the RPI but like Liberty have sputtered to a 4 and 6 record in their past 10 games after a hot start. Jacksonville is 1 and 5 but those 5 losses have come to KSU & FGCU. Jacksonville swept FIU the weekend before conference play started and picked up a big midweek win over FSU early in the season. They have also lost to Florida 1 to 0 in the midweek. If the Flames can restore order and find a way to win 3 of 4 on the road this week that RPI would shoot back up into the 40's I would expect. Keep an eye on the rotation. I would be surprised if Garrett Horn doesn't find his way into one of those spots in the rotation after his best performance yet Saturday.
#Risewithus
#Wegotdudes
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