2025 Season Preview

The Bradley LeCroy era will kick off with a 3-game set in Lynchburg against St Johns.  Naturally, a potential snow event of 3-6 inches is projected on Tuesday so hopefully the games aren't impacted.  The Flames do of course have turf which will certainly help efforts, although the weekend forecast currently shows rain on Saturday and Sunday as well.  For the first time in a bit the Flames are picked 5th of 10 teams in CUSA and have just 1 pre-season All Conference team rep in SP Ben Blair.  That shouldn't be a surprise given the turnover the program faced after the coaching change which was fairly late in the process.  We were able to see the revamped LeCroy Flames 3 times in the Fall against VT, Longwood & a Canadian HS National team.  The Flames smashed VT and showed what the lineup could look like if the Fall carries over into the Spring.  The Flames won't feel the weight of being the favorite this year and can hunt for once.  That being said they will need to find established arms behind Ben Blair or 2025 will end up like 2023 and 2024.  The Flames have struggled to find consistency on the mound particularly with Starting Pitching.  Starting pitching is the hardest thing to come by in the game and legitimate proven starters with a track record of success command quite a bit of NIL money.  The roster limits will be changing as will the NIL situation with Liberty opting in to Rev Sharing in that will start in June.  That being said let's take a look at what the lineup and rotation could look like along with a peak at the schedule.

2025 Schedule

Liberty always plays a difficult schedule and 2025 is no different.  Quite a bit of the schedule was already in place from Coach Jackson, but LeCroy did make a few tweaks including adding a road midweek @ NC State and a pair of road mid-weeks @ LeCroy's alma mater Clemson in mid-March.  The schedule still features 11 P4 ACC games with the majority being on the road this year.  The schedule also features 4 series against current mid major top 25 teams including #1 DBU (CUSA foe), WKU, Xavier & UNCW.  St. Johns, Campbell & Central Michigan (non-conference) are historically strong mid majors as well that makes for another 7 games.  I'd expect CUSA to again be a top 10ish RPI league as well. SOS should easily be top 50 at minimum and perhaps top 25 if pre-season accolades hold true. 

Lineup (Projected)

This is just my projection based off the Fall what I've seen in scrimmages.  (Order is a guess outside of 1 and 2).  

Swofford - 2B

Marsh - SS

Decandido - 1B

Sorenson - 3B

Robertson - CF

Troyer - RF

Barone - LF

Fulk - DH

Moore - C

I feel pretty confident in this group if Robertson is able to go.  He's been battling a minor injury that's impacted his ability to hit and is 50/50 for opening day.  Sorenson could also slide to First with pre-season all freshman choice Scilley or Simmons slotting at 3B.  Seth Christmas will most likely be the #2 catcher..  I think all 12 of these guys will get a pretty good # of AB's this year.  There's also a chance that some of the younger guys or JUCO guys emerge if they get an opportunity.  As noted previously I believe this lineup is going to hit.  Defensively, the OF should be very strong again.  We will need to see what the infield defense looks like as it's mostly all newcomers other than Marsh.  I expect Marsh's defense will take a step forward from last year from what I've seen.  

Update: Early, Simmons, & Christmas are likely to be the first guys off the bench beyond the starting 9.  

Pitching

Blair is locked in on either Friday or Saturday and has looked great all Spring.  The velo is back up after a little drop in the fall.  Beyond that, the Flames will likely pitch in pods of 2 to 3 innings as they seek to establish depth behind Blair.  That's not to say that there isn't talent there but it's mostly unproven.  Tyler August, Josh McCusker, Caleb Lingenfelter, Jack Frankel, Josh Swink & Cooper Harrington could all factor in those 2 to 3 inning pods until someone takes control of the other starting roles.  The Flames bring back pen arms that had some success last year like Cooper, Mathieson, Mclaughlin and a few other guys like Roberts that showed good stuff but need more opportunities.  I really like what I've seen out of both Troyer & Potts out of the pen that could factor in late.  Potts is a High Point transfer that's sat low to mid 90's with good movement.  Joseph Webb is a JUCO add that offers a couple different arm slots including a drop down to 3/4.  It's almost impossible to project what the back end of the bullpen will look like until the Flames see what they have live.  Still several other guys that I haven't mentioned, and I feel sure some of them will step up.  It's wide open beyond Blair.  

Update: Sounds like Potts and Mclaughlin will get the first shot at the back end of the bullpen and Mathieson will start Friday and go anywhere from 2-4 innings.  

Injuries

The Flames will start the season relatively healthy.  Robertson & Decandido are DTD with minor injuries.  It sounds like Decandido could potentially DH even if he can't yet play the field.  On the pitching side of things former VT commit and true freshman Seth Way and returner Brandon Dahlman are both out until mid-season but both are fully expected to return this year.