Under head coach Dot Richardson, Liberty softball enters the 2022 season with expectations as high as it has ever been. The Lady Flames enter the season ranked No. 24 in three major national polls as Liberty finished the 2021 season with a 44-15 record.
Liberty claimed its fourth conference tournament title by capturing the ASUN Softball Championship last spring. The Flames would advance to the Regional final of the Knoxville Regional, eliminating Eastern Kentucky and the host No. 9 national seed Tennessee before falling to eventual Women’s College World Series semifinalist James Madison.
It all starts in the circle for the Lady Flames. Reigning ASUN Pitcher of the Year, Emily Kirby is back for her senior campaign. She was named the Preseason Pitcher of the Year in the conference after posting a 15-5 record with a 1.92 ERA last season. She piled up 145 strikeouts over 138.1 innings pitched and held opponents to a .194 batting average. Her ASUN-leading nine shutouts placed her among the top ten nationally.
Coach Richardson has the luxury of having not just the one ace in the circle in Kirby, but having a second one in Karlie Keeney. Keeney pitched 147 innings last year and finished with an ERA of 2.43 and a 17-5 record. She also posted five shutouts in 19 starts.
“With a doubt, you have to have it in the circle,” said Coach Richardson. “There is a nice comfort in knowing that you have Emily Kirby and Karlie Keeney, and very impressed right now with McKenzie Wagoner. She is throwing the ball much harder than she did. I still think of a dark horse at this point is Naomi Jones, I think she has a lot of pitches. Emily Kirby is poised to keep it rolling. I think that Karlie Keeney looks even better, which is fantastic.”
Not only does the ASUN preseason favorite have the preseason pitcher of the year in Kirby, the Flames also have the league’s preseason player of the year in Kara Canetto. She was a 2021 All-ASUN First-Team selection as she led the league with 75 hits. Canetto started all 59 games for the Flames and had 25 multi-hit performances, including five three-hit games, while leading Liberty with a .385 batting average and 19 stolen bases.
Canetto, who spent most of her time last year in center field, will make the transition to left field to begin the season. Mary Claire Wilson will make the transition from the infield to starting the year as Liberty’s center fielder. She played in 41 games as a freshman in 2021, starting 27 at third base. Wilson finished the year with a .237 batting average, 20 runs, and nine stolen bases. She scored the winning run from second base on a sacrifice fly in the ASUN Championship final game against Kennesaw State, as well as scoring a key insurance run against Tennessee in an elimination game in the Knoxville Regional.
Alongside Canetto and Wilson in the outfield, the Lady Flames will have to find a replacement for right fielder Madison Via. Freshman Rachel Roupe and JUCO transfer Janessa Plummer will begin the season with the opportunity to claim that spot in the outfield. Roupe is a top 100 prospect out of Pennsylvania where she hit .541 with a .613 on base percentage her senior year. Plummer was a 2021 NJCAA Division I All-AMerica selection, helping Florida SouthWestern State to the NJCAA national championship. She finished the 2021 season ranked fourth nationally in NJCAA Division I with a .543 batting average, upping that average to .600 in the postseason as she was named the NJCAA National Tournament MVP.
It will be a new look infield for Liberty this spring as, most notably, the Bishop sisters have exhausted their eligibility. Looking to help ease the loss of Ambert and Autumn, the Flames will turn to Michigan transfer Lou Allan. An All-Big Ten selection last season, Allan had a .383 average, 54 hits, 11 home runs, and 45 RBIs. She was named to the ASUN’s preseason all-conference team.
“Lou Allan, just got to get her bat in there, one of the top hitters at Michigan and played for the USA Junior Olympic team,” Coach Richardson said of her new first baseman.
Rachel Craine, a freshman from Delaware, is expected to slide in at second base. She has impressed the coaching staff with her love for the game and tireless work ethic during the preseason.
“It’s hard to replace the twins,” said Richardson. “They are standouts, and they have set the bar to where you want your talent to be. I think Rachel Craine, coming in as a freshman, would have definitely benefited playing behind Amber (Bishop), but I do think the kid is passionate about the game and loves it like the twins. Practices like crazy, she goes all out, sacrifices body for ball, she has a gun for an arm. I think that’s going to be a huge asset as a second baseman for us.”
On the left side of the infield, another transfer and newcomer, Raigan Barrett is expected to slide in at shortshop. The Washington transfer joined the Flames this season after redshirting her true freshman season with the Huskies last year. Barrett was one of the top 50 overall recruits out of high school in the class of 2020.
Devyn Howard will look to cement her spot at third base this season for the Lady Flames. She played in 40 games last season, starting 34, including 31 starts at third base. Howard finished the 2021 campaign with a .312 batting average, 10 doubles, one triple, two home runs, 16 RBIs, and 16 runs score. She recorded 11 multiple-hit games and four multiple-RBI contests. Howard recorded a .385 average and .429 on base percentage during the Knoxville Regional.
“I’ve been impressed with Devyn Howard, in her performance of being a clutch player,” Richardson said. “I think you saw that at regionals, as well.”
Caroline Hudson is back behind the plate after she started all 59 games at catcher in 2021. She became the first Liberty player to start every game at catcher in program history and was named to the ASUN All-Tournament team. Hudson enters her sophomore season having started 70 straight games at catcher, a streak that began in February 2020 against Michigan. She batted .202 with four doubles, two home runs, 21 RBIs, and 16 runs scored. Hudson is most well known for her two home runs and five RBIs against Virginia Tech last season, hitting a game-tying homer in the seventh and a game winning homer in the night.
“She’s one of the best catchers in the nation,” Richardson said of Hudson. “Really excited about Caroline Hudson. She is just firing the barrel offensively. She is always a standout defensively, and she is more than capable of performing the way that we have seen her.”
Richardson says she has one of the deepest teams she has had during her time at Liberty with several players with a lot of speed, as well. Hailey Deter, Courtney Poulich, and Raye Green are all individuals she singled out as having strong preseasons.
Liberty opens its 2022 season this weekend in the 2022 Northern Lights Southern Nights tournament where four top-25 ranked teams headline the event. The Flames will play Friday, Feb. 11 against Iowa at 12:30 followed by a game against No. 19 Kentucky at 3 p.m. Games against No. 23 Northwestern and No. 9 Missouri are scheduled to follow over the weekend.
The opening weekend is just the beginning of what is to come from a very challenging schedule. The Lady Flames have several games against top 25 and Power Five teams this season. The home schedule features games against Virginia, Rutgers, James Madison, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Duke, and Tennessee.
Liberty opens its 2022 season with 10 games in the state of Florida, beginning Friday, Feb. 11 against Kentucky in Leesburg, Florida. The Lady Flames open the home schedule with an 11-game homestand, beginning with the Liberty Softball Classic, Feb. 25-26.
