Record : 8-11

RPI: 161

Home: 7-6

Away: 1-5

SOS: 89

Quad 1: 0-7

Quad 2: 0-0

Quad 3: 4-4

Quad 4: 7-3

CUSA RPI Conference Rank: 11th .50 ranking and 100-66 overall record. 

Liberty finished off the week 3 and 1 this week after taking 2/3 from Canisius and beating UNCA in the midweek.  Overall, the Flames played their best baseball since the first week of the season but there are still issues to continue to work through.  

Offensively, the Flames had a great week aside from a weird Friday night that saw them get held to 3 hits and shutout.  Sweatt has been steady both in the field and in the lineup where he's hit .324 with 2 HR's and 16 RBI's.  Noah Rabon has also been a steadying force at .295 with 1 HR and 16 RBI's.  The 2 transfers have been the Flames most consistent hitters in the early going.  Kepley has been solid at .292 with 2 HR's and 9 RBI's.  The 2 super freshman Tanner Marsha and Macaddin Dye have been excellent additions.  They have held up well defensively at 2 of the most important positions in the game at SS and Catcher.  Dye is now hitting a cool .317 with 2 HR's and 13 RBI's after being thrust into action with Hillier being down for the year.  Marsh is now up to .302 with a homer and 6 RBI's.  Mclellin has been a revelation defensively at 1B as he's made many incredible plays thus far and has been rock solid at .264 with 2 HR's and 13 RBI's.  The Flames need to get Horton and Troyer going to reach the full potential.  Horton was the Flames best hitter last year and they've been unable to get him going after the early season injury.  Hudson has shown tremendous power and could start to get more AB's if he can keep up the power.  Foster has struggled mightily as well but he's seemed to come around about this time each year the last 2 years and I'd expect the same this year.  If the Flames can get 2 of 3 of Horton, Foster & Troyer going they can still do damage lineup wise.  

The starting rotation has been a challenge all year due to injury but overall they've been a positive.  Hertzler's trap tightness got things out of whack for 2 weekend's but he's been back delivering 7 inning outings since.  Moran has been steady and will be relied on heavily with Horn's potential injury.  Mathieson, Blair or Dolby are going to need to be stretched out in the Sunday or midweek role.  Defensively, the Flames have a .977 Fielding percentage which is much improved from last year.  However, a few breakdowns have been at critical moments that have cost the Flames games.  

The bullpen continues to be biggest challenge for the Flames.  They've been unable to get shut down innings or to hold leads for the most part.  Edwards came into the year as 1 of the key pieces but has been unable to get on track thus far.  Carter, Cooper & Grubbs are the other returners the Flames hoped to count on coming into the year.  They all have ERA's over 5.73 though each have provided some clean innings and showed signs of life.  Liberty has to find a couple guys at the back end that can lock it down to get the rest of the roles in order.  


Up next

Liberty welcomes in 14-6 in state rival VCU who sits at #104 in the RPI before heading to MTSU to open up conference play this weekend.  VCU is just 1-4 on the road so far.  They've went 4 and 3 against P5 teams thus far.  The Blue Raiders are 9-10 and sit at #231 in the RPI.  They already opened up CUSA play last weekend by heading down to FIU where they lost 2 of 3 where they gave up 35 total runs.  They also have a midweek loss to 4-15 Lipscomb from the ASUN and they lost 6 to 1 to #11 Alabama who's 17-3 overall.  The Blue Raiders are 5-6 at home thus far.  Liberty will need to try and get 3 of 4 again this week to continue to crawl out of the early season hole. 

Notes:

The injury bug seems to have bitten the Flames again.  It sounds like Hillier has had the surgery and is now out for the season.  Also sounds like the Flames have gotten bad news on Horn but they are waiting for a second opinion before confirming.  The Flames could look to extend Mathieson if indeed Horn does miss extended time.  Tough break if the news holds true as Horn and Hillier were 2 big time returning contributors.  

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