The Liberty Flames continue to be projected into the NCAA Tournament field by both Baseball America and D1 Baseball this week as the ASUN automatic bid. The Flames are now 33-11 overall and 17-1 in conference play following the team’s three-game sweep of Kennesaw State this past weekend in Lynchburg.
This week, Liberty is pegged as a 3-seed in the Knoxville, Tennessee Regional by D1Baseball for the second straight week, hosted by No. 6 overall seed Tennessee. Other teams in this projected regional included 2-seed Georgia Tech and 4-seed VCU
The last five teams into the field in this projection are Oklahoma State, Georgia, Kentucky, Tulane, and Maryland. The first five teams out are Alabama, LSU, UC Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Virginia.
Arkansas continues to be picked as the No. 1 overall seed while other regional hosts are projected by D1Baseball to be Vanderbilt (2), Texas (3), Mississippi State (4), TCU (5), Notre Dame (7), Arizona (8), Stanford (9), Texas Tech (10), Oregon (11), Florida (12), East Carolina (13), Louisiana Tech (14), Pittsburgh (15), and Florida State (16).
In Baseball America’s projected field this week, Liberty remains as a No. 3 seed and this week is projected into the Greenville, North Carolina regional. No. 11 overall seed East Carolina would be the host of this regional along with No. 2 seed Old Dominion and No. 4 seed VCU.
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 at 36, down just slightly from last week’s ranking of 34 with a 5-7 record against Quad 1 opponents, 7-2 in Quad 2 games, 5-1 in Quad 3 games, and 16-1 against Quad 4.
The Flames return to action this weekend with the final series of the regular season at Kennesaw State. The Flames and Owls are the top two teams in the North Division of the ASUN, but with this past weekend’s sweep of KSU, Liberty has already clinched the No. 1 seed in the division entering the conference tournament. The Flames will host the North’s No. 4 seed Bellarmine in a best of three series in the ASUN Quarterfinals.
