Through two weekends of baseball the Flames record sits at 6-1. Liberty is playing some really good baseball.  Here’s a look at this past week’s results:

JMU (4-1 W)
Freshman pitcher Brady Stamper got the start on the mound and had a fantastic first outing of the season. Stamper gave up 3 hits, 2 walks, 0 ER, while striking out 8 over 5 innings and got the win in his debut.

Binghamton (2-4 L, 10-6 W, 3-2 W)

The Flames left 14 men on base in Friday’s series opening loss. There were a plethora of opportunities for the Flames to score, but they couldn’t get the job done. There aren’t many teams that will win games doing that.

Friday’s Starter Zach Clinton’s performance was impressive. Clinton got the nod with Brabrand still nursing the injury issue from his first start. We all know that baseball is game of the mind as much as it is skill. Clinton gave up 3 runs in a second inning that was pretty rough, but battled back to pitch three scoreless frames. It may not have been the performance of the weekend, but Clinton kept the flames in the game when it would have been easy to give in.  Having Clinton in the long relief/spot starter roll will be huge for Liberty this season.

The rest of the weekend came up all Flames against a Binghamton team that will likely be in the running for their conference championship. VCU and Binghamton may not be huge names in college baseball, but we will likely be hearing their names towards the end of the season. D1basball.com has them both making the NCAA Tournament in their preseason projections.

Pitcher of the Week:

Fear the mustache!  RHP Jackson Bertsch pitched 8.1 innings with 10 strikeouts while giving up 2 earned on 3 hits and walking 3 in the rubber match of the this weekend’s series with Binghamton. Through the third inning in Sunday’s series clinching win, Bertsch had only thrown 20 pitches. That’s about as efficient as it gets on the mound.  With his 8.1 innings pitched, Bertsch gave the bullpen a much needed rest, and picked up his first win of the season.

Hitter of the Week:

Junior Tre Todd currently leads the team after a week of play with a .389 batting average, and is tied for the team lead in RBI’s (8) and homers (2). Todd has also drawn a team high 11 walks.

Notes From Around The Big South:

Winthrop (3-5) who has faced some really good teams to start the season (Ole Miss and South Carolina to name a few) finally got in the win column after a weekend sweep of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Gardner-Webb (7-1) continues to roll after a 4 game sweep of Siena at home this weekend. Their biggest win so far is a win against ACC foe Wake Forest.

Up Next For Liberty:

The Flames head down to North Carolina for a mid week matchup with Elon (2-6) and a weekend series with #20 UNC (3-5).

The weekend series with UNC will be a tough test for the Flames with the Tar Heels exiting the week with losses against UNCW, St. Johns, and 2 against ECU. UNC, along with playing some tough competition to open their 2018 campaign, has plenty of talent on their roster, but hasn’t put it all together yet. The Tar Heels will be looking to get back on track while the Flames will be looking for an early RPI boost.

It’s also worth noting that Head Coach Scott Jackson spent 8 years as an assistant coach at UNC before coming to Liberty.

See you next Monday! Go Flames!