Gainesville Regional 

#1 seed: Florida - (39-22) #12 RPI SEC Tourney Runner-up, went 20 and 5 in non-conference (2 of the 5 losses to Liberty).  15 and 15 in SEC and 22-11 at home.  Finished 2nd in the SEC East behind #1 Tennessee.  (Ace Hubter Barko that beat Liberty out for season with TJ surgery). 

#2 seed: Oklahoma - (37-20) #19 RPI - won the Big 12 Tournament, finished 3rd in regular season behind TCU & Texas Tech.  

#3 seed Liberty - (37-21) #31 RPI, Asun East shared titled, ASUN tournament runner up, took 2 of 3 from Florida on the road, split with UNC in midweek, split with Campbell (won the Big South and went 4 and 4 against KSU and was swept by Wake & VT in midweeks.  Overall, 8 and 11 against tournament teams.  This is the prorams 3rd all time at large birth and 3rd year in a row making the field.  

#4 seed Central Michigan - (41-17) #68 RPI - won the MAC tournament and finished 2nd in the regular season and makes the programs 16th tournament appearance.  210 - strength of schedule.  Lost to Coastal, Wake, WVU twice and took 1 of 3 from Iowa in high profile Quad 1 games.  0 and 2 against tournament teams.  


Liberty will head back to the state of Florida which has been their home away from Lynchburg this year.  The Flames will be the #3 seed and face #2 seed Oklahoma.  Florida will face MAC power Central Michigan as the host team.  Liberty was one of the last 4 teams in the field along with Ole Miss, Grand Canyon & Florida State after dropping the ASUN title game to KSU.  However, it appears Liberty was firmly in the field as the discussion seemed to be centered around FSU & GCU & NC State who was left out.  This is a tremendous honor for the program to receive back-to-back at larges as a mid-major.  ODU finished with an RPI of 40 and was left on the outside looking in.  As a long time, Liberty fan, we know what it feels like to be on the other side of the coin, particularly in FCS football.  Liberty has become a household name, a mid-major power that resides in a quality ASUN conference that finished with 3 top 75 RPI teams.  Very few other sports on campus can get in as at large regularly.   Liberty's future CUSA home had 4 teams in the field including Liberty, Dallas Baptist, Louisiana Tech & New Mexico State who made a surprise run in the tournament.  Liberty has had some fun in these Friday games beating the likes of Duke & Clemson and eventually sweeping both of those programs in the past.  Liberty's RPI which was driven by wins, strong non-conference performance & a quality record in a solid ASUN is what got the Flames in this position.  That ASUN tournament run certainly helped as well.  Let's look back at the tournament for a moment.  I actually liked the format with the exception of the championship game.  Liberty went in 4 and 0 and I believe KSU should have had to double dip the Flames to claim the title in this scenario but that wasn't the case.  Secondly, let's appreciate the way Liberty handles pitchers.  I get that KSU had to win to get in but in this day and age they put an incredibly heavy workload on their 2 best guys who made 5 appearances between them and logged over 380 pitches to get the win.  Liberty for instance shut down its best pitcher Garrett Horn to make sure he's healthy and did the same with Trey Gibson last year.  It's important to take care of young pitcher's arms.  

Let's take a look at Oklahoma next.  They had a strange season finishing 3rd in the regular season but got hot and won the tournament.  Oklahoma is a brand name that's regularly in the tourney in both baseball and softball.  They opened the season with Auburn Arizona and Michigan beating Michigan and Auburn and losing to Arizona.  All 3 teams ended up in the field.  Next up they lost to LSU, Tenn. & UCLA (all top 10 teams).  They had a win verse DBU 8 to 7 and beat Oral Roberts 8 to 2 who also made the field then later lost to ORU 5 to 1.  They finished 15 and 15 in the Big 12 overall before winning the tournament as noted earlier.

I'll dive into the roster and what the Flames could see for a post later in the week.  


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