Liberty : 22-12
ASUN : 9-6
Warren Nolan RPI : 37
Quad 1 Record : 5-5
Quad 2 Record : 4-1
Liberty dropped the midweek game in a 10-6 slugfest vs Virginia Tech. Then the Flames took 2 of 3 on the road from the ASUN East leading Kennesaw State Owls. Liberty won big in Games 1 and 2 by a combined score of 27-5. Garrett Horn went 6 innings and had 9 strikeouts again in route to the win Friday night. Anderson, Orndorff, Foster & Keeter all had 2 RBI's each. Keeter, Hill & Anderson all had 2 hits a piece on Friday. Trey Carter pitched the final 3 innings of the game allowing 1 ER which would lower his ERA to 2.25. Horn's ERA is down to 1.62 after his start. Weather push the Flames and Owls into a DH on Saturday. Liberty rang the bell early and often and had an 8 to 0 lead after the first inning. Dylan Cumming went all 7 innings of the DH 10 run rule game in route to lowering his ERA to 2.92. Offensively, Betts and Anderson each had 4 hits and Betts had 5 RBI including a HR. Drew Baughman went 1 for 3 with a HR 3 runs scored and 2 RBI's in his first extended work of the year. Mathieu, Hiller & Keeter all chipped in 2 hits as well. After crushing KSU in the first 2 games the Flames could smell the sweep as they got out to a 5 to 1 lead after a 2 run PH Gulakowski homerun. Betts had added another solo HR to lead off the game. The Flames were feeling good as they brought on ever reliable Mason Fluharty to relive Joe Adametz after 4 1/3 innings. Fluharty would get out of the jam in the 5th. Fluharty would get tagged for 7 earned runs in parts of the next 2 innings leaving Fluharty and the Flames stunned. Liberty would fight back to tie the game at 8 in the late innings before being walked off 9 to 8 in the bottom of the 8th.
ASUN:
Conference play was totally flipped upside down the last 2 or 3 weeks. Liberty was firing on all cylinders heading into conference play before stumbling out of the gate and Jacksonville State got off to a hot start in the West. FGCU got hit before cratering and settling into the middle of the pack after losing 5 of their last 6. Lipscomb got off to a 0 and 5 start before ripping off 10 straight ASUN wins to finish 10 and 5. Bellarmine and North Alabama are clearly the bottom 2 teams in the conference. Surprisingly, the rest is a pretty jumbled up mess heading into the second half. KSU came on and really surprised a lot of folks as they sit at #17 in the RPI at the midpoint. I still think Liberty is the best team in the ASUN and will land on top when the dust settles. The Flames will also bring Jacksonville and KSU to Lynchburg this go around. Jacksonville always plays the Flames difficult and have never made it to Lynchburg and KSU is the next most talented team behind the Flames. Lipscomb and JSU appear to be the best teams in the West. That side of the bracket will continue to feast on Bellarmine and North Alabama so you can't just look at the records.
Key takeaways:
Starting Pitching - The Flames starting pitching has taken off the last 2 weeks and the results have been much more in line with what the Flames expect.
New Infield : Overall, it appears the Flames have improved their defense. Keeter really hit the ball well and was on base all weekend. Hill and Foster have been productive offensive pieces all year. For this to work Foster & Hill will have to continue to improve defensively at those positions.
Homers - The longball returned down in KSU and the Flames liked the results. Liberty's offense has been at it's best this year when the ball is flying out of the ballpark. I'm sure the Flames would like to be a little less dependent on the homer but right now it's been a key part of their success and it's become a huge part of college baseball again just like the mid 90's.
On Deck :
Liberty will welcome the 16 and 20 Duke Blue Devils into Lynchburg fresh off a 3 game sweep of #9 Notre Dame. Prior to the weekend the Blue Devils had really been struggling the last few weeks including a 9 to 2 loss to the Flames a couple weeks back in the mid-week. Duke is just 2 and 7 in true road games on the year and is #108 in the RPI headed into the week. Next up, the Flames will welcome North Florida to Lynchburg to kick off the second half of conference play. North Florida is 15 and 22 and just took 2 of 3 from FGCU. They have pretty much been a mixed bag all year. The Ospreys sit at #134 in the RPI. If the Flames continue to get good starting pitching this is a great opportunity to go 4 and 0 and create some space in the W-L spread.
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