The Flames had another phenomenal week of baseball that included a sweep of Big South foe, Presbyterian, capping off a season sweep of ACC opponent, Duke, and a run of thirty-four straight innings without allowing a run.
Seiz adding to the run tally
Trey Lambert got things started with a complete game shutout of Presbyterian. Lambert only allowed one hit and walked none in the outing. The Flames would follow Lambert’s lead and hold Presbyterian without a run the entire series, completing the sweep in dominant fashion, 5-0, 8-0, 8-0.
Duke visited Liberty Baseball Stadium after dropping their previous matchup with the Flames in extras. This time Duke found themselves up 3-0 after 6 innings, but the Flames were in the Fool’s Day spirit and roared back behind a homer by Close, his third straight game with a home run at the time, and bombs by Yacyk and Seiz to complete the epic comeback, winning 4-3. After winning eight straight, the Flames finally lost in their second ACC matchup of the week against Maryland. The Terps are the first team to do much off of pitcher Jared Lyons who now has an ERA of 1.56 after the 8-3 loss.
It seems like I’m bragging on the pitching staff every week, but they just keep getting better and better. No one who has pitched over nine innings has an ERA above 3.6 and quite a few guys boast a sub 2.0 ERA. Their complete series shutout against Presbyterian is one of the most impressive feats for an entire staff imaginable.
The Flames were no slouches at the plate either. Seiz continued his greatness, going 10-20 this week with the go ahead home run against Duke in the bottom of the eighth. Alex Close also had another great week with a few home runs and a hit in every game. The Flames are now batting .296 as a whole.
Player of the Week: Trey Lambert
Liberty’s ace has now notched six straight wins, the last of which was a complete game one-hit shutout. A pitcher can’t do better than going a complete game without allowing a run, so needless to say, Lambert was able to rise above many other worthy candidates for our POTW. Lambert, along with Ryan Seiz, were named ECAC Players of the Week as well. While impressive, this is a much inferior award than your FlamesNation POTW.
Upcoming
April 4 7:00 VMI
April 5 3:00 VMI
April 6 1:00 VMI
April 8 6:00 Richmond
The FlameTrain will be rolling at home all week, so make sure to go support them as they take on two in-state foes, beginning tonight against VMI.
