Baseball is back! There may still be a chill in the air, but Liberty Flames baseball fires up the 2018 season with a series at home this weekend against in state foe VCU (Fri. 3pm, Sat. 2pm, Sun. 1pm). Head Coach Scott Jackson starts his second year at the helm and looks to improve on a promising first season where the flames finished 32-23, but failed to win a game in the Big South Tournament.
Notable Games on the 2018 Schedule:
-The Flames will play their first 7 games at home and will hope to get off to a fast start with a weekend series agains VCU, a mid week against JMU, and another weekend series at home against Binghamton.
-The Flames will head down to play UNC Mar 2-4 who are ranked #6 in d1baseball.com’s preseason rankings. The Tarheels a perennial top 25 team and this season is no different.
-The Flames are currently scheduled to play 10 games against ACC opponents (UNC (3), VT (2), UVA (1), Duke (2), Wake Forest (2).
-The good folks over at d1baseball.com have 9 of Liberty’s 2018 opponents projected to end up in the NCAA Tournament (UNC, UVA, VCU, Binghamton, Canisius, Wake Forest, Duke, St. Johns, and Winthrop). More than a third of Liberty’s games (24) will be played against teams that are projected to finish at the top of their conference. There’s an entire season to be played so who knows whether these projections will hold up, but there are some really good teams on this year’s schedule. (Here’s the link to those projections from d1baseball.com)
Preseason Accolades:
Junior DJ Artis is one of the most fun players to watch in all of NCAA baseball and is poised to build on his first two years in a Flames jersey. Artis has been named a National College Baseball Writers Association Preseason All-American and was named the Preseason Big South Baseball Player Of The Year. DJ is now the veteran on the team and should be a huge leader in the clubhouse.
Big South Preseason Poll:
1. Winthrop
2. Liberty
3. High Point
4. Radford
5. Campbell
6. Presbyterian
7. Gardner-Webb
8. Charleston Southern
9. UNCA
10. Longwood
Home cookin’ for the 2018 Big South Tournament:
It’s a little early to be talking about the Big South Tournament, but this year’s tournament will be held at the Liberty Baseball Stadium. The last time tournament was held in Lynchburg the Flames won it all (2013).
This Weekend against VCU:
As reported by Nick Pierce of the Flames Sports Network, the weekend pitching rotation will be: Fri. – RH Evan Brabrand, Sat. – RH Jackson Bertsch, Sun. – RH Noah Skirrow.
We will have a recap of this weekend’s games against VCU on Monday as well as a look at how the rest of the Big South started their season!
