Liberty : 15-17

Home : 8-6

Away: 7-11

Q1: 2-8
Q2: 2-3
Q3: 3-3
Q4: 8-3
RPI : 75
SOS :38
Non Conference SOS : 9th
ASUN : 6-6

Liberty picked up a big 7 to 3 win over Virginia Tech.  Tech came in at 18-11 and 13-5 at home sat at number 41 in the RPI before the game.  Liberty pitching turned in another great performance.  Trey Cooper got the start and his first collegiate win while going 2 innings and allowing just 1 unearned run.  Trey Carter continued his hot streak and pitched 2 scoreless innings to lower his ERA to a season low 3.65.  David Erickson followed Carter and went 2 innings and allowed 1 earned run.  Cole Garrett had the 7th and allowed a monster solo shot to start the inning but then settled in and shut the Hokies down 1 2 3 after.  Ty Germanowski came on and pitched a scoreless 8th while touching 95 and allowing just a walk.  Finally, Cole Hertzler came in and slammed the door in the 9th to secure the win.  The Flames pitching was outstanding tonight in allowing just 2 earned runs to the 4th best offense in the ACC.  The Hokies have a team BA of .303 and are 2nd in the ACC in home runs with 59.  Liberty did all of their damage in the 1st and 7th innings with 3 and 4 runs respectively.  Betts had a sac fly and Hillier had a big 2 run double that VT would challenge but the call would be upheld.  Great slide by Troyer to get under the tag as the ball beat him there.  The 8th was started by a Foster double and highlighted by a Betts 2 run single.  Guy and Troyer also had clutch singles to center on nasty pitches and Guy's drove in a run.  All in all that was the best game of the season for the Flames.  There were a couple miscues from the infield but the pitching was dominant and the offense came up with timely hitting.  

Liberty will head down to Kennesaw Georgia to face the Owls in a 3 game ASUN series starting Friday.  The Owls have struggled to follow up their 2022 season with a 14-16 record and they're 6-6 in the ASUN and their RPI sits at 172 tonight.  The Owls are just 11-10 at home and 0-5 in Quad 1 games.  The Owls have struggled defensively with a team .952 fielding percentage and a team ERA of 5.24.  They do sport a team Batting Average of .281 and the star of the show is Brayden Eldson who is hitting .347.  Donovan Cash offers a little pop with 5 homers and 32 RBI but as a team they only have 27 homers.  KSU has had a team that featured 5 or 6 stud hitters the last couple years so this is a change.  Liberty should match strength on strength with their pitching verse KSU's lineup.  Both teams have struggled defensively.  The series will likely be decided by what Liberty can do at the plate.  The Flames don't exhibit a ton of power either so they will need to have timely hitting as they did tonight.  Liberty would love to keep the momentum going and head down south and pick up a series win.  

Key Metrics 
*Liberty's RPI climbed 6 spots with the win to get back to 75
*Non Conference SOS is now 9th and still has road games with Wake (5), UVA (2) & home games with VT (46) and ODU (50) left.  

Liberty's RPI is going to be in the ballpark thanks to their SOS and non conference SOS.  They have 3 very nice top 53 RPI road wins against ODU, Duke & VT.  Winthrop has helped the cause a bit as well with a 124 RPI and LU won 2 of 3 against the Eagles on the road. The question will be can the Flames win enough games to get their overall record to where it needs to be to have any kind of shot at an at large.  I like the Flames to win 2 of 3 this weekend and split in the remaining 4 non conference games.  North Florida is 17 and 15 and at home where the Flames should be able to win 2 of 3.  Stetson and Jacksonville State are on the road in back to back weekends.  Liberty needs to at minimum split there.  That would get Liberty to 24-24 with the last 6 games against EKU and Bellarmine who are 13-19 and 10-22.  If Liberty could go 5 and 1 that would pull the Flames to 29-25 heading into the tournament.  Liberty would need to do some work in the tournament but you could see the Flames RPI hanging out in the 50 range if things were to play out that way.  Liberty has to show they can play consistent baseball and go on a run for any of this to matter.  However, the pitching staff has started to find it's groove a bit lately and if that trend continues the Flames will find themselves in most games.  

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