The Liberty Flames continue to be projected into the NCAA Tournament field this week as the ASUN automatic bid by most national prognosticators. The Flames concluded the regular season by dropping two of three games to Kennesaw State in Lynchburg. The Flames conclude the regular season with an overall record of 33-20 and a 19-11 record in conference play.
The Flames now turn their attention to securing that ASUN automatic bid in this week’s ASUN Tournament, beginning play Tuesday morning against FGCU as part of pool play. Liberty is looking to advance to a third straight NCAA Regional this season. The Flames concluded the regular season in a first place tie atop the ASUN East Division with Kennesaw State, narrowly winning the tiebreaker as the No. 1 overall seed this week due to a higher RPI.
The Flames are currently being pegged as a 3-seed in the College Park, Maryland Regional by D1Baseball, hosted by No. 6 overall seed Maryland. Other teams in this projected regional include 2-seed Texas Tech and 4-seed Fairfield.
The last four teams into the field in this projection are NC State, UTSA, Old Dominion, and Clemson. The first four out are Iowa, Kennesaw State, San Diego, and Louisiana. The Flames have a very similar resume to that of the KSU Owls, so this gives a good gauge to how Liberty would be squarely on the bubble if they do not win the ASUN’s automatic bid this week.
Tennessee is picked as the No. 1 overall seed while the other regional hosts projected by D1Baseball are Virginia Tech (2), Stanford (3), Oregon State (4), Miami (5), Maryland (6), Louisville (7), Texas A&M (8), Southern Miss (9), Auburn (10), Virginia (11), Notre Dame (12), Oregon (13), TCU (14), Oklahoma State (15), and Georgia Southern (16).
In Baseball America‘s projected field this week, Liberty is a No. 3 seed in the Blacksburg, Virginia regional where No. 3 overall seed Virginia Tech would be the host alongside No. 2 seed Wofford and No. 4 seed Coppin State.
Kennesaw State is being projected by Baseball America as one of the “Next Four Out” as the fifth team out in the pecking order for an at-large.
In other Regional projections this week, Liberty is being projected into the field by College Baseball Nation and College Sports Madness as the ASUN’s automatic qualifier. College Baseball Nation has the Flames in as a three-seed in the Charlottesville Regional. This projection also has Kennesaw State as one of the first four out. The College Sports Madness projection, also has Liberty as a three-seed in the Charlottesville Regional.
If Liberty were to falter in the ASUN Tournament, the Flames would be squarely on the bubble and would have to sweat out the selection show. Liberty’s RPI is currently 41, down slightly from last week’s mark of 39, with a 6-10 record against Quad 1 opponents, 8-3 in Quad 2 games, 6-6 in Quad 3 games, and 13-1 against Quad 4.
We will all be able to watch the selection show in less than a week when the field of 64 teams that will compete for the 2022 college baseball championship will be announced. Monday, May 30 at noon ET on ESPN2 is when the selection show will be televised.
