The Flames’ 3-7 record over their last ten games, and two and done regional performance probably left a bad taste in most people’s mouth. Saturday’s loss to Bucknell was a disaster in many ways. After a promising two run first inning, Liberty went completely cold at the plate, not scoring another run. Meanwhile, all five runs that were scored by Bucknell were the results of two Liberty errors that kept innings alive for the Bison. All in all, it was a poor game against an inferior club.
The reality is, though, Liberty baseball made some crucial strides in the right direction this year, and gained attention from the national media that the program had never before experienced. Despite the play down the stretch, many would consider this to be Liberty’s best season in program history. Here’s a list of some of their accomplishments:
- On April 29th, Liberty cracked the top 25 national rankings for the first time in school history
- Liberty had a run of six straight conference games that were shutouts against VMI and Presbyterian
- After a dominating 20-3 record in the Big South, Liberty swept the major awards: Ryan Seiz was Player of the Year, Trey Lambert was both Pitcher of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Parker Bean was named Freshman of the Year, and Jim Toman received the honor of Coach of the Year.
- Liberty had five players make Big South first team, and two more make the second team.
- Ryan Seiz also made the Louisville Slugger All-American Second Team.
- Liberty also received their first at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
- And there may be more to come as Shawn Clowers and Ryan Seiz have been named Gregg Olsen award semifinalists.
Though the season didn’t have an ideal ending, this was an overachieving team that should have multiple players get drafted this year. Unfortunately the Flames hit their peak midseason and weren’t able to sustain their play, but I think this year definitely sets things up for a successful future.
We have to learn to hit the breaking ball. after other teams found this out…… we were done!
I understand Jim Toman has not resigned with Liberty baseball and is being courted by Clemson. Is this true as there are many blogs out there about this (see below clip):
We agreed then that Clemson would not make it to the next level with Leggett in place. Dr. B went so far as to piece an article back in 2010 outlining the need for change given the obvious lull the program was entering. As usual, he looks like a prophet predicting this now obvious glaring hole in our athletics department
As for his replacement, I believe many eyes are on current Liberty manager Jim Toman. This is fairly obvious and no real shock for people who have followed baseball over the years. A bunch of my Carolina friends have stated that they’ll be extremely upset if we are able to get him and they are, as they said, “stuck with Holbrook.” I don’t believe he would have taken the Clemson job several years ago because of his loyalty to Ray Tanner and his alleged desire to coach there. Now the issue is Liberty. They have built him a brand new stadium and he has plenty of momentum with the Flames. Toman built the South Carolina program into dominance on the recruiting trail and certainly would improve local recruiting for Clemson. We’ll hopefully see if the lure of a tradition-rich Clemson job will lure him to Pickens County.