The Liberty Flames are looking to advance to a third straight NCAA Regional this season as we approach the stretch run. Liberty is currently 30-17 overall and 16-8 in ASUN play, and are currently sitting alone in first place atop the ASUN East Division standings following a series win against Jacksonville this past weekend.
Liberty did miss a prime opportunity to pick up a resume-building win on Wednesday night in Blacksburg against No. 5 Virginia Tech. The Flames led 1-0 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning before the Hokies were able to rally and score two runs to walk it off. Despite that loss, the Flames are being projected into the NCAA Tournament field by both D1 Baseball and Baseball America this week as the ASUN automatic bid.
The Flames are currently being pegged as a 3-seed in the College Park, Maryland Regional by D1Baseball, hosted by No. 12 overall seed Maryland. Other teams in this projected regional include 2-seed Georgia and 4-seed Campbell.
The last four teams into the field in this projection are San Diego, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana, and North Carolina. The first four out are UTSA, Clemson, Pitt, and Old Dominion.
Tennessee is picked as the No. 1 overall seed while the other regional hosts projected by D1Baseball are Oregon State (2), Oklahoma State (3), Virginia Tech (4), Miami (5), Arkansas (6), Louisville (7), Auburn (8), Texas A&M (9), Notre Dame (10), LSU (11), Maryland (12), Virginia (13), Southern Miss (14), Stanford (15), and Gonzaga (16).
In Baseball America‘s projected field this week, Liberty is a No. 3 seed in the Charlottesville, Virginia regional where No. 11 overall seed Virginia would be the host alongside No. 2 seed TCU and No. 4 seed Campbell.
Kennesaw State, who was being projected as an at-large into the NCAA Regionals by both D1Baseball and Baseball America last week, is now on the outside looking in in both projections this week.
In other Regional projections this week, Liberty is being projected into the field by College Baseball Nation and just missing the cut by College Sports Madness. College Baseball Nation has the Flames in as a three-seed in the Charlottesville Regional. It also has Kennesaw State in the projection, as well, having the Owls as one of the last four teams in the field. The College Sports Madness projection has Liberty as one of the first four teams out of the field and Eastern Kentucky as the ASUN’s only representative.
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 43, down from last week’s mark of 38, with a 5-8 record against Quad 1 opponents, 4-2 in Quad 2 games, 13-7 in Quad 3 games, and 8-0 against Quad 4.
With just two regular season ASUN series remaining, the Flames will play at FGCU this weekend with the series scheduled to begin Friday evening.
