Liberty : 17-18
Home : 8-6
Away: 9-12
Q1: 3-9
Q2: 1-2
Q3: 3-3
Q4: 10-4
RPI : 65
SOS :33
Non Conference SOS : 4th
ASUN : 8-7
Liberty went 3 and 1 on the road with a win over VT and then took 2 of 3 from KSU on the weekend. Friday was a wild game that saw Horn, Carter & Hertzler stuff the Owl offense. Keeter had a big stolen base attempt that he probably should have been tagged out but the catcher made a bad throw and scored the tying run or else the Flames likely drop the opener. Credit to Keeter for forcing the issue. Foster made an incredible play late in the game and then backed it up with the bat as well. Gainey went 6 1/3 Saturday allowing 3 earned for a QS but Liberty was only able to muster 5 hits. The rubber match saw Mikey Tepper pitch well for the 3rd straight game as he went 5 2/3 and allowed just 1 ER. Garrett & Germanowski finished it off. Hillier had a homer and Kepley had 3 hits and 3 RBIs.
On Deck
The Flames will stay on the road with another tough test against #2 Wake Forest who is now 31-5 on Tuesday in Winston Salem. Wake is an incredible 20-1 at home. The bats had carried Wake for the last couple years and the first half of the season but here lately the pitching stepped up. They're still averaging 5.4 runs a game their past 10 games but that number was over 10 runs a game prior to that. Liberty has been going with the multiple reliever look and has started Erickson, Hudson & Cooper in recent weeks since Gainey went to the pen. Usually the starter goes 2 innings. Wake will be coming off winning 2 of 3 at home against #9 Louisville but they did lost Sunday.
North Florida will head to Lynchburg for 3 as they set at 19-16 and #173 in the RPI. North Florida is just 3 and 7 on the road and just 0-3 against Quad 1 and 2 games and their SOS is just 173 so they haven't been tested nearly as much as Liberty. They just won 2 of 3 from Central Arkansas this weekend and they will play 2 midweek games at home against South Florida and Florida State so their pitching could be in tough shape by the weekend. If Liberty is unable to upset Wake on Tuesday there's a great chance to get the first sweep of the year this weekend between the Flames improved pitching and the Osprey's road woes and relative lack of tough competition.
ASUN
Liberty finds itself right in the middle of the pack at 8-7 which is good for 7th (14 total teams). They have however, played all 3 of the top 3 teams already and played FGCU & Lipscomb on the road. They (Austin Peay at home). They find themselves just 1 game back of Jacksonville and Stetson and 2 games back of Peay & Jacksonville State and they have the tie break on Peay. Liberty's final 6 games are against Bellarmine and EKU are in the bottom 4. There's still plenty of time to make a run and the schedule definitely softens a bit. Liberty has the 2nd fewest runs against at 200 as only Jacksonville State has 193. The pitching continues to find it's way and errors lead to a good chunk of that 200.
Notes - Liberty's Non Conference SOS is now #4 in the nation. Yes, #4 and their overall SOS is #33. The only sports at LU that can even get in the discussion about potentially playing as difficult of a schedule as Baseball is Softball, Field Hockey & Golf but I'm not sure any will top Baseball this year. The ASUN is a strong baseball league as well. I think everyone including the staff and players were disappointed in the way the season started but it's because all the program has ever done is win for the last 30 years. So when we play top 25 3 game sets on the road against ECU, Southern Miss & FGCU we expect to do better than 1-8. You also can't overstate how tough it is to be on the road that much against quality opposition. Liberty was also on the road at Winthrop for 3 thanks to a COVID flip flop in schedules and WU has been in the top 120 range in RPI all year. Add in the always tough midweek ACC matchups which see both UVA and Wake in the top 5 and Duke & VT in the top 50 plus 2 more with top 50 ODU and you get my drift. None of that makes any excuses and I think the staff and players would be the first to tell you that but these last 2 years are a big step up even for Baseball in scheduling.
Stock up - Alright alright, after like the 10th person had told me I needed to bring this section back from last year here it is.
Trey Carter - There ain't nobody hotter at Liberty than Trey Carter and maybe not in the ASUN on the mound. His ERA is now down to 3.10 in 29 IP and his OPP BA is .186. He also has 42 K's in those 29 IP. He's shown flashes of this the last couple years but everything is working right now. His body language, repeating his delivery, plus stuff, tempo, tilt and location on the breaker. He's been pretty darn near unhittable the last month.
Germanowski - Germ has battled injuries the last 3 years but he's finally healthy and he's up to 9 IP and has yet to allow an ER and the opponent BA is .129! He also has 10 K's. He's going to be a key piece at the end of the pen down the stretch.
Tepper - That's 3 straight really solid starts from Tepper in a row. On the year he's at 5.23 ERA and .209 Opponent BA with 45 K's in 41 1/3. That ERA will keep coming down if he keeps this up. Kind of reminds me of the Max Alba situation last year but he figured it out a little before Alba.
Kepley - The true freshman now has 67 AB's under his belt and he's leading the club in hitting at .328 with 9 RBI's and 9 Stolen bags. He's become a stalwart in LF.
Guy - JGuy is now hitting .310 with a homer and 18 RBI's to go along with 15 SB's. Guy is always been an elite defender and baserunner but now he's a key cog in the lineup. So happy to see him have this kind of success at the plate.
Horton - Another true Freshman who now has 78 AB's and is hitting .308 with 3 homers and 20 RBI's.
Horn - Look, we don't appreciate Horn enough. He carried us when literally nothing else was going right in the early going but he and Troyer. He's still at 2.32 ERA with .199 Opponent BA and 55 K's in 42 2/3 IP. Certified Ace.
Raise your hand if you had Kepley, Guy & Horton as the top 3 hitters on the 2023 Flames.
Where are we
RPI is where it is for a reason. Liberty has played a really tough schedule and mostly on the road. They have 4 really good road wins against Duke, VT, FGCU & ODU. They need to get their overall record up to the 30 win area to have a shot. It's possible. Wake & UVA are going to be very very difficult but beyond that every game left is winnable. If we can steal one of those big time top 5 games it's a game changer. Just keep winning and let's see where this thing ends up.
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