Quarter Point of the Season

 

Record:  11-5          Team ERA: 3.96

Home: 7-2               Team BA: .258

Road: 4-3                Team Fielding %: .974

RPI: 99                    Team OPS: .791

Quad 1: 2-5

Quad 2: 1-0

Quad 3: 2-0

Quad 4: 6-0

CUSA Rank: 105h Average RPI .5097

SOS: 172

We're just under 1 month into the 2025 season and Liberty sits at 11-5 with 1 more road Midweek game at #10 Clemson before a weekend series home with Princeton.  Things really could not have gone much better realistically other than winning 1 more game against Xavier which would have won that series.  Liberty hangs tough and has frequently come back from early deficits.  Ben Blair has looked every bit the part of the ace that Liberty needed him to be.  Mathieson has pitched very well and has solidified himself as a starter for the Flames.  Overall, Liberty has about 8-9 pitchers that have shown they can be part of the solution.  At some point, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Mccusker, Webb or Frankel get a shot to fill that 3rd starting option.  Liberty is still in search of that 3rd starter and a lefty reliever to give the Flames that matchup lefty they need.  Recently, Spencer Williams & Trey Cooper have provided encouraging outings out of the bullpen including a scoreless inning from Williams today at Clemson.  We also saw Landon Scilley make his first appearance on the mound and pitch a scoreless inning.  I'd love to see Gibson get a shot at more innings as well.  He's shown good stuff in his 2 outings.  The team ERA of 3.96 has been a welcomed surprise as the Flames have struggled to pitch consistently the last 2 years.  

Lineup wise Liberty has been a bit uneven but they have a 20 point higher BA than their opponents and 6 more home runs than their opponents (18-12).  OPS is also .791 to opponent .680.  Liberty really needs Cal Early or Easton Swofford to step up and win the 2b job.  I think both are fully capable from what I've seen.  Liberty also needs the Riley Decandido and Tucker Moore of the last 4 games or so to lengthen the lineup.  Liberty has a more balanced lineup with solid power but will need to be a bit more consistent to hit peak levels.  Defensively the Flames at .974 are going to be above average nationally if they can keep this up.  Marsh has 6 errors and Moore has 3.  SS & C are of course pretty much the 2 most difficult positions to field in the game but Liberty needs a little bit more from Marsh especially at SS.  

What's the ceiling of this team?  It's still hard to tell as the early portion of the schedule has turned out to be a little softer than we anticipated pre-season but 11-5 is nothing to take for granted giving the level of change Liberty endured this offseason.  If Liberty can solidly the spots previously mentioned I think the ceiling is around 38 wins for this Liberty team which could get them in at large contention.  They will have plenty of Q1 and Q2 games left.  Liberty needs to continue to do work against inferior opponents.  They really need to sweep Princeton this weekend as after that most of the rest of the games left on the slate will be Q1 and Q2 games with a few Q3 and Q4 sprinkled in.  

CUSA - WKU has stormed out to a 16-1 start albeit against a fairly week SOS #269.  DBU is 12-4 and already has 2 P4 wins over formerly undefeated Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.  KSU and Sam Houston State have got off to somewhat surprisingly slow starts at the bottom.  FIU & Jax State have had solid starts as well but FIU has played a weak schedule as well.  Jax RPI is in the 80's but we need to see more there.  La Tech has gotten off to a roughly .500 start but they do have 1 win over #25 Southern Miss.  I still think they will end up factoring in the top of the league.  

Notes: 

St Johns is just 3-11 but that includes a sweep @ Wake Forest, 2/3 losses @ Louisville, Loss at OSU, and 3 losses to Liberty.  They've gotten off the mat in the past after tough schedules.

*Duke & NC State have gotten off to disappointing starts but they've been late rising teams as well in recent years so if they're able to get it together late that could help Liberty's RPI.  

*Liberty hopes to potentially get back a couple pitchers here in the next few weeks in Seth Way and Brandon Dahlman. Sounds like JUCO OF Peter Johnson is out for the year.  


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