The Flames opened the 2017 season down in Charleston, S.C. with games against top 20 UVA, Kansas, and The Citadel. Head Coach Scott Jackson picked up his first win as a head coach against Kansas on Saturday going 2-1 overall on the weekend.
The Flames began the season Friday against UVA where it seemed the Flames needed to work out those first game jitters. Several big innings in the 10-2 loss were aided by errors that were uncharacteristic for the Flames over their next two games.
Starter Eric Grabowski struggled to get outs and to limit big innings against UVA, though it wasn’t always his fault. The verdict is still out on Grabowski after his rough opening day. We know that he can be extremely effective on the mound, take the way he finished last season for instance, so maybe this just had more to do with UVA being a really good team yet again this year.
The Flames looked much better in the other two games of the weekend where they only gave up 2 total runs. Starting pitchers Caleb Evans and Jackson Bertsch were both dominant even though they didn’t go deep into their games (more than likely because of early season pitch counts).
The two freshman manning the left side of the infield, Ben Highfill (3B) and Cam Locklear (SS), hit their first collegiate home runs this weekend. Locklear settled in nicely after committing 2 errors in the opening game and showed his potential with nice plays agains Kansas and The Citadel.
Player of the week:
1B Sammy Taormina
Taormina went went 6-11 at the plate with 4 extra base hits which was enough to garner the Big South baseball player of the week honors.
Coming up:
Wednesday vs. Kentucky 3pm
The Wildcats are 0-3 after a close weekend series with top 10 UNC.
Lexington County vs. Cancer Tournament – Lexington, S.C.
Friday vs. UMBC (0-0) – 6pm
Saturday vs. Kansas State (3-1) – 2pm
Sunday vs. Kansas State (3-1) – 11am
We will be live and in person at the game Wednesday so be sure to follow us on twitter (@aseaofred and @Evan_Taylor) for photo and video updates.
