Liberty 26 - 12

ASUN: 12 - 6 1 GB KSU in East

RPI : 45

Quad 1 : 5-5

Projected Regional Seed : 3


Liberty went 4 and 0 in a week for the first time since early March including a weekend sweep of North Florida.  The Flames whipped the Ospreys 22-4 Friday and won a slugfest highlighted by 3 Gulakowski homers.  Then they won a pair of 1 run games 5 to 4 and 10 to 9 to finish out the weekend.  Sunday particularly wasn't always pretty at times but good teams find multiple ways to win and Liberty did just that.  Cade Hungate returned to action after missing the last several weeks of action due to arm soreness and looked pretty solid in his return.   The bullpen looks much better with Hungate at the end of it and Carter, Fluharty, Erickson and Beamon as the primary set-up guys.  Liberty is primarily using 9 pitchers right now regularly.  Hopefully, they can get 1 or 2 more guys step up to make it 10 or 11 guys that get regular usage.  

Liberty will head to UNC for a midweek rematch with Tarheels.  The game was moved due to potential storms in the area and the fact that it would allow the Flames to head straight to Florida after the game for the Stetson series this weekend.  Carolina is just 2 and 8 over there last 10 games including a dreadful midweek lost to NC A&T who is 12 and 26 in last week's midweek.  The Heels RPI has fallen down to #48.  The Flames are 9 and 7 on the road this week and should have a great shot to secure the season sweep with the Heels stumbling.  Virginia swept the Heels last weekend as the Saturday game featured a dramatic walk off 10th inning grand slam for the Cavs. After the UNC midweek game  Liberty will head to Deland Florida to face the Stetson Hatters.  Stetson is 18 and 21 overall and is just 2 and 8 in their last 10 and 5 and 13 in the ASUN.  Two of those wins came against Liberty in a costly series loss in the 2nd weekend of conference play for the Flames.   However, Stetson is up 12 to 4 on #3 Miami in the 8th inning as I work on this article which would be a massive win for the Hatters.  The Hatters have really fallen on hard times since leaving Lynchburg.  Liberty needs to go 3 and 1 or better this week to maintain a top 40 RPI pace which would almost certainly would secure an at large in a regional if they can maintain that pace.  40 wins is a benchmark that is also beginning to come in sight for the Flames.  The Flames have 16 regular season games left plus the tournament to reach the 40 win mark again.  

Regional Host Sites

Liberty is right on the 3 seed line right now with an RPI of 45.  They will need to get back down inside the top 32 most likely to have a shot at the 2 seed line.  These 3 games with the Hatters this weekend and the High Point home games are the low RPI trap games left on the Flames schedule.  They really need to find a way to win all 4 of those games if at all possible.  The rest of the games on the schedule are top 100 RPI teams or just outside.  College Baseball and Softball typically tries to send teams to regional sites within their own geographic regions if at all possible.  This year Tennessee, UVA, VT, Louisville, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Maryland and potentially even Wofford and Georgia Southern are all potential host sites.  Obviously, this entire list won't be able to host but all of those teams are currently in the top 25 and have a shot to host.  Tennessee is a place I really wouldn't want to play again.  This is the best Vols team they have in a long long time and they are built for that ballpark.  In any event, those are all teams to keep an eye on as potential host sites as we come down the home stretch of the 2022 season.  


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