Liberty’s season came to a close Sunday night in Knoxville as the Flames lost to Tennessee, 3-1, and were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
In a rematch of Saturday night’s winner’s bracket contest, it was pitcher’s duel as Liberty closer Fraser Ellard made his first start for the Flames. He let one pitch get away as Drew Gilbert belted the ball over the right field wall with two outs in the fifth inning as Tennessee took a 3-0 lead. The Flames were unable to recover.
Read all of head coach Scott Jackson’s comments to the media following the game below:
OPENING STATEMENT
“Tough day. It’s a tough day to see your season end, but I’m proud of our players and the way that they represented Liberty, our program and our university. Our university is special. I couldn’t be more proud to be the head coach there. Guys like Trey McDyre changed our program and have taken our program to another level. I’m excited for what the future holds for us.”
“Tonight’s game, I was impressed with Tennessee, with the way they pitched the baseball. I thought that was two different looks. I thought Will Heflin did an excellent job, especially against our left handed hitters. Sean Hunley has been good for them all year. We didn’t have many opportunities, and that’s a credit to their pitchers. Big swing of teh bat by Gilbert and that was the difference tonight. I thought we competed about as well as we could in this environment, especially on the mound. I enjoyed watching our players compete at this level and on this stage. Like I said, I’m tickled to death to be their coach. I’m proud to be their coach. Tough day for us, but our program will be back here, I can promise you that.”
YOU WERE 0-FOR-6 WITH RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION TONIGHT, WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE PLATE IN THE TWO GAMES TODAY?
“I thought there were more pitches to hit early this afternoon, that’s not taking anything away from our players, but I thought tonight we had opportunities. They made good pitches in spots. We didn’t have many but Heflin’s slider was good. He changes speed with it, he lands it, he extends the plate with it. He just did an outstanding job with that today. Shoot, we didn’t have anything off of Hunley, any moments there in that situation. He’s a tough look. Hunley’s a tough look coming out of that bullpen. It’s just a different fastball he pitches in the top of the zone. If I had to guess, I don’t know the metrics on the pitch, it’s a high spit ball. I think we just had a hard time getting on top of it.”
WHAT WAS HUNLEY DOING SO WELL TONIGHT?
“I just thought it’s one pitch that’s so hard to get on top of that we just didn’t do a good job adjusting to that. The balls that were down there belt or below, I thought we got some really good swings on. I thought Brady got one to left there, and, obviously, Jake hit one hard to right field for a base hit in the ninth. Other than that, I don’t remember much hard contact from us, that’s a credit to Sean being able to pitch in the top of the zone, and there’s just not many mistakes. He attacks you.”
FRASER ELLARD MAKING HIS FIRST START OF THE YEAR, WHAT DID HE GIVE YOU OUT THERE?
“I thought it was strikes. He came out of there attacking. It was a good starter look. We haven’t seen him in that role except maybe in a scrimmage, it was very limited. For him to give us that kind of start here as he finishes his career at Liberty, I’m so proud of him just to be able to have that moment, and I know that was something he wanted to do when he got to Liberty. He was selfless enough to go to the back end of the bullpen for us, embrace that role, and put our team in a situation where we have a chance to go to the postseason with a bona fide closer at the end of the season. There’s not many teams that can say that. For him to be able to do that and give us a start, 92 pitches, and to land sliders against an unbelievable Tennessee lineup, I’m proud of him, that’s for sure.”
YOU FACED TENNESEE TWO YEARS AGO IN THE CHAPEL HILL REGIONAL, WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU SAW THERE THAT LED YOU TO BELIEVE THEY COULD BUILD INTO WHAT THEY ARE NOW?
“I’m glad you asked that because I mentioned that to Tony after the game. He’s done an unbelievable job here recruiting good players, knowing the brand, having some moxy in that dugout. They think they’re going to win. That starts with your coaching staff. That starts with an attitude. I think Tony’s done a great job. There were some pieces there that we saw tonight that we saw in 2019. Good players make pitches, have good at bats in big situations. There’s a lot of those guys, some of them didn’t play so much in 2019 and now their player development is where it’s at. Their program is in the right direction. Tony has done a great job and he continues to develop those players and recruit at a high level.”
WHAT DID YOU WANT OUT OF ELLARD AS THE PITCH COUNT STARTED TO RISE?
“The pitch count, I wasn’t too concerned about it. The number one thing I was concerned about was Fraser Ellard has a future in professional baseball. So, there’s a limit there, we want to take care of him. I thought Gilbert didn’t have as good of swings on him the previous look. It’s a pitch that he left up. I’m sure he’d love to have it back, but at the same time I’m going to go down fighting with Fraser Ellard any day of the week, and I’m not going to look back on that one and regret. I don’t think he was tired. The velo was there. There was some 94-95 in the middle of the game. He made one bad pitch. As frustrating as it is, I’m proud of Fraser and the effort that he gave us in his first start of the season.”
WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON THIS SEASON, WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THIS TEAM TO FIGHT TO THIS POINT?
“The way I’ll sum up this season is, we left TCU 2-5. We lost three in a row and we were getting ready to head to UCF and they had just won a series at Ole Miss. We were sitting there with our backs against the wall. It was a moment for our team where I told them they had to go down there to UCF and prove it to themselves that they could win on the road, they could beat high caliber opponents. From there, our kids ran with it. We have not lost back to back games sine we left Fort Worth. If that doesn’t tell you what you need to know about our team, I don’t think anything else does.”
“I was part of a team in 2013 that did the same thing. We had the same characteristics in that dugout. The hard part is that it’s over. The best part is that these kids are going to take this season with them for the rest of their lives. There’s an experience that goes with college baseball. It’s the ultimate experience if you are at the right place, if you have the right people around you, it’s the ultimate experience of your lifetime. I feel certain those kids will tell you, up to this point in their lives, this has been the mountain top experience for them. I wanted it so bad for them. I knew what we had in our clubhouse. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but it did for us. We got to a regional. We fought through a regional just like I thought we would. It’s unfortunate we got in the loser’s bracket, but credit to Tennessee. They’re a great program. They beat us. I’m looking forward to getting on the practice field with my team in August, I can tell you that much.”
