Liberty jumped out to a 5-0 early lead on Tuesday afternoon at Davenport Field and Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, Virginia before the Virginia Cavaliers scored 6 unanswered to claim the 6-5 win.
With the loss, Liberty falls to 27-11 overall while the Cavaliers improve to 20-19 overall and are 11-16 against ACC opponents. The Flames are now 5-3 against ACC opponents this season. Entering Tuesday’s game, Liberty’s RPI was at No. 37 while UVA was at No. 60.
The Flames jumped all over the Cavaliers in the 2nd inning with a 5-spot, similar to the first meeting on March 24 in Lynchburg as Liberty scored 5 runs in the 1st inning before going on to the 10-2 win. The first three batters of the inning reached base before shortstop Cam Locklear singled to drive in two. Right fielder Brandon Rohrer’s bloop single to left fell in to score another run. Catcher Gray Betts brought home another with his sacrifice fly while Virginia second baseman Max Cotier booted Aaron Anderson’s grounder to score the 5th run of the frame.
Aaron Anderson had a web gem in the bottom of the 4th inning to preserve Dylan Cumming’s solid start. With a runner on base, the left fielder Anderson tracked a ball to his left and towards the outfield wall. He timed his jump perfectly as he scaled the fence and robbed Kyle Teel of a would be two-run home run.
Over the next four innings, Liberty would get runners on base and into scoring position but were unable to bring those runners home. In the 5th and 6th innings, the Flames loaded the bases and were poised to break the game open. The Cavaliers bullpen would slam the door close and keep Virginia within striking distance.
Making his third consecutive mid-week start, Cumming had another strong start for the Flames, putting the team in position to pick up a win over the power conference opponent. After pitching 5 innings of scoreless baseball, Virginia finally got to the Liberty pitcher in the home half of the 6th inning. The first three runners got base hits for UVA to start the inning after Cumming had only allowed two base hits in the first five innings.
Cumming would finish the day pitching 5+ innings while surrendering 5 hits and 2 earned runs. It was the third straight start for him that he ran out of juice after a strong start to the game.
Mason Fluharty came on in relief of Cumming and was able to get out of the jam. He entered with runners on the corners and nobody out, and forced the Cavaliers into three consecutive groundouts. Virginia picked up two runs in the frame to cut Liberty’s lead to 5-2.
The Cavaliers would add three more runs in the 7th inning off of Fluharty and Cade Hungate to tie the game at 5. The Flames would again load the bases in the top of the 8th inning before Virginia closer Stephen Shoch would get out of the jam by striking out Brady Gulakowski.
To lead off the bottom of the 8th inning, Kyle Teel would go opposite field off Hungate to give Virginia its first lead of the game. Teel gets a little bit of payback from being robbed by Anderson earlier in the game. This ball was well over the fence and out of Anderson’s reach.
In the top of the 9th, Jake Wilson led off with a pop fly that dropped in shallow center field. He moved to second on Locklear’s groundout, but Shoch was able to retire Drew Baughman and Three Hillier, striking out the freshman Hillier to end the game.
This weekend, the Flames will return home to and will be back in ASUN action hosting Bellarmine for a three-game set beginning Friday at 6 pm. Liberty will be looking to exact some revenge from the team’s only conference loss so far this season as the Flames dropped one of three games in Louisville against the Knights in late March.
