In front of a record crowd of 4,024 at the Liberty Baseball Stadium in Lynchburg, Va the Flames fall to the 11th ranked and defending national champion Virginia Cavaliers 7 to 3. The struggling Flames who fall to 22-23 on the year have now lost 6 of their last 8 games and fall to 3-7 on Tuesdays during their 2016 campaign.

UVA’s Adam Haseley started the scoring in the top of the 2nd by taking a 1 out 3-2 fastball over the visiting bullpen in right field to give the Hoo’s a 1-0 lead.

The Flames would answer though, with a 2 out 2 run triple by freshman outfielder Jack Morris plating Grabowski and Kowalo.

Liberty would score 1 on a single by catcher Payton Scarborough in the bottom of the 3rd, but the scoring would end their for the Flames.

The Hoo’s would score 4 runs on 2 hits and 2 errors in a sloppy top of the 5th for Liberty.  It was pitcher Zander Clouse’s throwing error that caused first baseman Sammy Taormina to have to reach back towards home plate and into the running lane of UVA’s Andy Weber.  Taormina’s glove hand would be violently bent backwards forcing him to leave the game with a wrist injury. Two runs would score on the error. According to Coach Jim Toman, Taormina will have an MRI on his hand to determine the extent of the injury.

UVA would tack on a run in the top of the 8th on a 2 out Andy Weber single to center that would close out the Hoo’s 7 run 12 hit offensive performance.

Liberty starter Zander Clouse was credited with allowing 4 earned runs on 6 hits with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts over 4 innings pitched bumping his ERA to 4.57.

Parker Bean bounced back after not recording an out and walking 3 against William & Mary last week to pitch a scoreless 9th inning.

Up Next for the Flames:

The Flames look to get back on track with a weekend series beginning Friday May 6, at 7pm against the conference leader and 24th ranked team in the country Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.  The Chanticleers (0-5) have never beaten the Flames inside the new Liberty Baseball Stadium which opened in June 2013.

Liberty (7-9 in the Big South) sits just one game ahead of 9th place Radford and two games ahead of 10th place UNCA in the conference standings.  With Campbell being ineligible for the conference tournament the Flames currently need to finish 9th or better with 9 more conference games remaining (3 against Coastal, 3 against Redford, 3 against High Point) to qualify for the Big South tournament.