Record: 35-20
Asun: 19-11
Pool Play: 2 - 0
RPI: 38
Quad 1: 3-7
Quad 2: 13-6
Liberty has come out hot in this new 2022 ASUN tourney format in Fort Myers. First, they won 4 to 3 behind 2 Brady Gulakowski homers and strong pitching from Cumming & Fluharty in FGCU's home park. Next, they doubled up KSU 12 to 6 behind another 3-run homer from Gulakowski and a late 3 run homer from Anderson that would put the game out of reach. Liberty jumped out to an early 6 to 0 lead before KSU erased the defecit and timed the game up. Freshman Nick Moran would battle through 4 innings while allowing 6 earned runs on 70 pithces. Max Alba would come on and deliver 4 shutout innings to stabilize the Flames in yet another great outing from the pen. Beamon pitched a scoreless 9th to secure the victory. A month ago, it looked like Alba's 2022 season was dead in its tracks. Fast forward and Alba has become a key piece to the equation down the stretch.
Liberty will turn it's attention to the final game of pool play against a Lipscomb team that they have not seen all year. The Bison come in at 35 and 21 and sit and #139 in the RPI. I also look to see how teams did against similar competition and Quad 1 and Quad 2 teams to see if they are a real threat or if they just feasted on weak competition. They were 31 and 11 combined against Quad 3 and 4 teams which means that only 4 wins came against Quad 1 and Quad 2 teams. They did have a mid-week win over 6th ranked Louisville but got smoked in all other high profile games. This game will be interesting to watch even though Liberty is moving on either way. I would expect Liberty to throw a heavy dose of Wilson, Garrett, Riley, Johnson, Miller & Willard etc. I'm not sure who exactly made the travel roster so some of those guys may not have made the trip. If Liberty is ahead late I could see using some of the high leverage arms to secure the win late as RPI still matters. Another interesting reliever to watch is Germanowski. He has looked electric here recently now that he's gotten fully healthy and could be another arm to factor into high leverage situations with the guys that have been in that role all year. Both he and Riley have looked good recently.
Liberty is on to the semifinals either way with what they havve done the first 2 days. EKU is locked in as the Pool B winner already. If Lipscomb beats Liberty and FGCU beats KSU then Lipscomb could ascend to the Pool A winner spot to take on EKU in the first single elimination game Friday. The second game would be Pool A runner up verses Pool A 3rd place team. So the KSU FGCU game tomorrow has real implications. One of them is heading home. KSU and Liberty are the only 2 ASUN teams with any at large hopes at all so FGCU's season is on the line. Liberty is in great position with Adametz and Gibson both still fresh and really only Alba & Horan are probably spent for the tournament. The format is very different than we have been used to but some of the P5 leagues like the ACC have used similar formats in recent years. One positive to the format is that it protects RPI for the teams that are in contention for an at large by pooling the high RPI teams in the same side and 3 of the 4 getting into the semifinals.
The Flames are still right in the mix for an large spot should they fail to win the tournament as well. Every win puts them a step closer to locking in a spot should they fail. Most projections have Liberty as a 3 seed and the ASUN winner which means KSU is not projected to get an large should they fail to win the ASUN auto bid. Personally, I think if Liberty wins tomorrow and Friday they are a stone cold lock for an at large. If they lose tomorrow but win Friday and then lose Saturday I think they are still in pretty good shape. Should they lose tomorrow and on Friday they could be on the wrong side of the proverbial bubble but it's too early to tell and there is a lot of baseball to be played all around the country before that can said with any certainty. Liberty has put itself in a great spot and really controls it's own destiny for the auto bid and is still firmly in control of an at large spot. Liberty didn't drop much at all after losing 2 of 3 at home to KSU last weekend which is a testament to their non conference schedule and overall performance but also a testament to the strength of the East division. The ASUN takes a lot of crap in other sports but it legitimately had 3 top 75 RPI teams in the East this year and 5 or 6 top 150 programs. That's a far cry from a sport like MBB that other than 2019 Lipscomb, Liberty has been the only program to sniff the top 100 of the RPI or NET rankings.
*Note, Brady Gulakowski now has 16 HR's and 61 RBI's. That's the best power numbers I can remember since I have been following the program for the last 20 plus years. I don't think he's done yet. Enjoy the time we have left. He has put on a show the last month and half.
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