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 swept Bellarmine in a two game series to begin the ASUN Tournament and conclude Liberty’s home schedule this season. The Flames have improved to 37-12 overall and finished the regular season at 19-2 in conference play.
This week, Liberty is pegged as a 3-seed in the Austin, Texas Regional by D1Baseball, hosted by No. 3 overall seed Texas. Other teams in this projected regional include 2-seed UCLA and 4-seed Stony Brook.
The last five teams into the field in this projection are Indiana State, Indiana, Pittsburgh, California, and Baylor. The first five teams out are Louisville, Oklahoma, Long Beach State, Alabama, and San Diego.
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), Arizona (4), Tennessee (5), Notre Dame (6), Mississippi State (7), Texas Tech (8), Stanford (9), East Carolina (10), TCU (11), Oregon (12), Ole Miss (13), Florida (14), Gonzaga (15), and Charlotte (16).
In Baseball America’s projected field this week, Liberty has moved up to a No. 2 seed for the first time this season and is being projected into the Nashville, Tennessee regional. No. 3 overall seed Vanderbilt would be the host of this regional along with No. 3 seed Pittsburgh and No. 4 seed Southeast Missouri State.
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 a season-best 26, up from last week’s ranking of 32 with a 7-9 record against Quad 1 opponents, 7-1 in Quad 2 games, 5-1 in Quad 3 games, and 18-1 against Quad 4.
With the regular season behind them, the Flames now set their eyes on securing the ASUN’s automatic berth into the 2021 NCAA Baseball Championship. Liberty, the No. 1 seed in the North Division, takes on the No. 4 seed from the South Division Jacksonville to open the double-elimination portion of the ASUN Tournament. The ASUN champion will be crowned on Saturday and Monday the NCAA Tournament field will be announced.
