WKU @ Liberty Preview

Western Kentucky will roll into Lynchburg with a 28-5 record including 6-2 in CUSA and #42 in the RPI which is good for 2nd place in the league.  Liberty comes in at 22-11 overall, 5-4 in CUSA & #51 in the RPI.  WKU is coming off an impressive weekend that saw them take 2/3 on the road against conference favorite Dallas Baptist.  WKU has raced out to an incredible overall record including going 22-0 at home and leading CUSA in team hitting and team ERA.  WKU is led by Ryan Wideman who's hitting an eye popping .452 with 6 HR's 40 RBI's and 27 stolen bases.  Wideman is 1 of a league high 7 Hilltoppers hitting over .300.  As a team they are hitting .323 with 34 homers.  It won't get any easier for the Flames on the mound as WKU has a team ERA of 2.67.  Liberty is 2nd in ERA in the league but over 1.5 runs higher at 4.29.  As you may have guessed the only reason the Hilltoppers aren't in the top 20 of the RBI is a relatively light schedule thus far.  I really wasn't sure what to expect prior to DBU as they had really only taken Vanderbilt to extra innings before losing in terms of quality opposition.  They had also lost 2/3 to a 13-19 Kennesaw State team.  WKU's strength of schedule is just 229 compared to Liberty's which is 90th.  WKU has just cleaned up on Quad 4 games where they've went a perfect 24-0.  There's something to be said for taking care of business against the teams that your supposed to.

Liberty comes in riding high after a 3 game sweep of MTSU to pull into a 4 way tie for 3rd place.  The Flames got great starts all weekend from all 3 of their starters.  Potts & Mathieson have really thrived in those 50-65 pitch opener spots and Blair has been the ace as advertised all year.  Landon Scilley broke out of the funk highlighted by a big 2 homer day.  Coach LeCroy went to Seth Christmas and Michael Gibson to try to spark the lineup and Christmas responded with 2 homers including a walk-off.  I think at this point in the year the bottom of the lineup has been struggling to get on base so the staff is looking for some pop.  

Reasons Liberty could win the series?

Home - Liberty is at home where they are 17-4 and WKU is on the road where they are still solid but just 6-5.  The home standing Flames are built for their ballpark and also have 5 more HR's than the Hilltoppers with more LH options.  

Defense - Statistically Liberty is the best defensive team in the conference with a .981 fielding % while WKU is 7th at .966

Battle tested - Liberty has played the 90th SOS compared to #229 for WKU.  Liberty has had it's back against the wall several times but hasn't folded yet.  WKU really hasn't been bloodied to this point other than the KSU series.  

Reasons WKU could win the series?

Loaded Offense - WKU has 7 of the top 18 hitters (BA) compared to Liberty which has just 1 and is near the bottom of the conference in team BA at .261 and most offensive categories.  

Deep and Talented Staff - 3 of the top 4 pitchers in the league are featured in this series.  Unfortunately, the Hilltopers have 2 of the 3 in starters Jack Bennett & Drew Whalen.  As previously mentioned they are almost 1.5 full runs better than Liberty who is the #2 Team ERA in the league.  

They're 28-5!! - Look, the SOS is significantly weaker and Liberty has beaten 4 ACC teams but at the end of the day it's really hard to go 28-5 against D1 competition.  Beating DBU 2/3 on the road was a wakeup call to the rest of the league which had likely quietly wondered just how good this team was.  

CUSA - The best Mid Major?

Conference USA has had an incredible year as the league continues to be the 5th highest ranked Conference in the RPI.  The league is also just percentage points behind the Big10 to take over 4th behind the SEC, ACC & Big 12.  The league has 5 teams between #32 and #54 in the RPI and just one team above 189 which is Sam Houston State at #229.  LA Tech is at #111 and when it's all said and done they will be up inside that top 60 as well if I had to guess.  The move to CUSA has been awesome for Liberty Baseball, Softball, & the basketball programs. It used to be that the best games to watch for Liberty were always in the non conference in those sports and now there's little to no drop off from non conference to conference.  I wish I could same the same for Football but that's a sore subject these days among Flames Fans though it was still the right move for Football as well.  

Interesting Note : Warren Nolan currently predicts Liberty to finish 33-23 and 59th in the RPI and projects the Flames to drop 2/3 in this series.  Liberty needs tow in this series to make a statement get closer to the 35 win mark which would keep them inside that top 50 of the RPI and in the hunt for an at large.