Record : 13-14

RPI: 150

Home: 10-8

Away: 3-6

SOS: 110

Quad 1: 0-8

Quad 2: 4-1

Quad 3: 1-3

Quad 4: 8-2

CUSA - 5-1 T1st with DBU

Last 10 - 7-3

Teams Stats : ERA 4.95, Fielding % .968, BA .279

Liberty got out the brooms and swept a Sam Houston State club that rolled into Lynchburg top 40 in the RPI.  Liberty has played much better baseball the last 3 weeks but have still had a couple late inning defensive miscues or bullpen issues that cost the Flames the VCU and Wake games.  The lineup was excellent all weekend long.  Horton and Foster have caught fire as each have raised their BA nearly 100 pts in the last 2 weeks.  Dye & Marsh have become stabilizing forces in the lineup as well.  Troyer has shown signs of life lately as well to go along with his stellar defense.  Hudson has provided big time pop from the left hand side.  When and if the Flames can get Rabon back the lineup will have length unlike any other we've had in my memory.  Further, Simmons has provided some valuable left handed pop off the bench as well.  Liberty was able to do things they had been unable to do for some time like record shut down innings after getting runs offensively, limit walks, timely 2 out hitting and making defensive plays in key spots.  

The starting pitching has stabilized behind Hertzler as well.  Moran seems to have turned the corner on his injury woes and just pitched a career high 7 innings.  Ryan Butler has taken Horn's spot in the rotation and seems like he can give the Flames 5 or 6 innings of 3 or 4 run ball most times out.  It looks like the plan will be to  go with staff days in the midweek the rest of the way.  Hudson has been getting the start and going 1 time through the order.  Blair seems to have settled in as the stopper.  You can't overstate how good the young freshman has been.  Mathieson's stuff ticked way up his last appearance and Grubbs has now given back to back quality outings.  If the Flames can get Trey Cooper, Trey Carter and Graham Edwards going the way they are capable of the bullpen can turn to a strength.  Juco transfer Cale Bolton has delivered back to back solid appearances as well.  The coaching staff has been searching for defined roles all year and it seems like we may have found that and can then fill in from there. 

Defensively, the Flames aren't quite as good with Rabon injured but overall the defense is much improved on last year.  Marsh has made quite a few errors but he's also flashed brilliance in the field and shown to be more than capable with the bat.  Besides the timeline on Rabon's return, 1B will be the position to watch.  Mclellin has been exceptional defensively all year at 1B and swung the bat well early as well.  He's leveled off recently and has lost some AB's to Simmons.  If Rabon is able to return I'm sure we see Horton get some reps at 1B and DH as well.  

CUSA has proven to be mostly what we expected with the exception of FIU being 6-3 and SHSU being 3-6.  DBU still appears to be the class of the league and LA Tech will factor in as well.  However, Liberty still has 6 games against Jax State and NMSU who are a combined 1-11.  The Flames will need to go 5-1 or sweep those series to help get the overall record where they need it to be.  The Flames still have a slew of strong mid-week games starting with ranked Duke at home next week.  They need to snag a couple of those.  They also still have home and home with VT, @ UVA, @ WF, @ VCU and home vs Campbell plus the 3 road games against DBU.  

Notes : Injuries have begun to mount for Liberty.  Before the season ever started Horton had a hand injury that essentially robbed him of the first 3-4 weeks.  Hillier is now down for the season as is Horn.  Throw in Rabon's finger injury and the Flames have lost significant time from 4 of the expected top 10 returners.