Tennessee, the No. 3 national seed and host of the Knoxville Regional, trailed Wright State, 8-5, with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday night. That was when Drew Gilbert stepped into the plate and drilled a walk-off grand slam over the right field fence to push the Volunteers into the winner’s bracket of the regional against Liberty on Saturday evening.
That momentum carried over against the Flames as Liam Spence led off the game with a home run, basically going back-to-back with Gilbert from Friday, to put UT on top, 1-0, in the top of the first. The home run derby for the Volunteers wouldn’t stop there. They hit five home runs in the first three innings to claim a 7-0 lead, it was all they would need to advance to the regional final with a 9-3 win in front of a sellout crowd.
Spence hit two home runs, as he added a three-run blast in the second. Luc Lipcius also hit two home runs and Gilbert got into the action once again, with a solo shot of his own. All five of the deep balls came against Liberty starter Dylan Cumming who lasted just 2.2 innings, surrendering six hits and seven runs. Entering the game against Tennessee, Cumming had allowed just five home runs in 56 innings, as he would allow that many in less than three innings against the power hitting Volunteers.
Liberty had their chances on offense throughout the game. Anderson’s one-out double in the first was for naught. In the second, Jake Wilson walked with two outs and was then rounding third as Logan Mathieu tried to stretch his single into double but was thrown out at second.
Things were quiet until the sixth when the Flames finally got in the scoring column. Wilson reached on a grounder to third with a throwing error as Trey McDyre scored. Mathieu then singled to right field and advanced to second on an error as the ball got to the wall and Wilson and Brady Gulakowski scored. That brought the Liberty deficit to 7-3.
With the Flames’ bullpen dealing and pitching four straight scoreless innings in the middle frames, Liberty attempted to make things interesting. Gray Betts led off the seventh with a double, followed by an Aaron Anderson walk and the Flames had grabbed the momentum with Will Wagner coming to the plate.
The Liberty second basemen checked his swing with two outs on a ball that looked to be high. Wagner questioned home plate umpire Angel Campos about his call, as did Liberty head coach Scott Jackson. Camps would quickly toss Jackson as the Liberty skipper questioned whether it was a called third strike or Wagner was rang up on his checked swing. On the very next pitch, McDyre grounded into a double play to end the threat and quell the Liberty rally.
Tennessee tacked on two runs in the eight, and Campos then tossed Liberty pitching coach Matt Williams as he exchanged words with the home plate ump.
Six pitchers entered the game out of the bullpen for the Flames with nobody throwing more than 29 pitches. David Erickson, Mason Fluharty, and Tyler Germanowski combined to throw 4.1 innings of scoreless relief to give the Liberty bats a chance. Cade Hungate, Landon Riley, and Mason Hand also entered the game. It was a strategic move by the Flames to not extend any one pitcher out of the bullpen so they could be available later this weekend.
This is third time Liberty had won its first game in an NCAA Regional. The Flames have dropped their second game in all three of those occasions. Liberty lost to No. 14 South Carolina, 19-3, in 2013 and No. 14 North Carolina, 16-1, in 2019.
The Flames will face Duke in an elimination game at 2 pm on Sunday. The Blue Devils rebounded from their loss to Liberty on Friday with a 14-6 win over Wright State. The winner of that game will advance to the regional final against Tennessee at 6 pm on Sunday. The Volunteers will have to be beaten twice by either Liberty or the Duke with the if necessary game being played on Monday at 1 pm.
