No. 14 Liberty to Open ASUN Play at UNF, This Weekend

By Press release submission

Mar 17, 2022

Quick Facts

• The No. 14 Liberty Flames travel to Jacksonville, Fla., to open ASUN Conference play against the North Florida Ospreys, this weekend. The two teams have not met a conference series during the regular season since 2019.

• Despite seven of the games between the two teams all-time have come at UNF’s Harmon Stadium, the Flames and the Ospreys have never met in an ASUN regular season series at the facility. Libery holds a 9-3 lead in the all-time series.

• Liberty looks to rebound from a 2-1 loss at VCU on Tuesday. At 12-3, the Flames are off to their best start in head coach Scott Jackson’s six seasons at the helm.

• Liberty Head Coach Scott Jackson is in his sixth season. He has led the Flames to a 170-95 record and NCAA Regional appearances in 2019 and 2021 during his tenure.

Out On the Road

• The Flames fell 2-1 at VCU on Tuesday in their first road contest since March 1. Liberty will enter the weekend 3-2 on the road in 2022.

• Liberty finished 2021 with a 16-12 record away from Lynchburg, winning eight of its last 12 games way from Worthington Field at Liberty Baseball Stadium.

• The Flames posted a 3-2 record in neutral site games during the year, defeating 2021 ACC Champion Duke twice at Lindsey Nelson Stadium during the NCAA Knoxville, Tennessee Regional.

• Liberty posted a 13-10 road record. The Flames’ road wins included a sweep of a three-game series at UCF, March 5-7, their first road sweep since April 28-30, 2017 when Liberty took all three games of a series at Longwood, and a win at North Carolina on March 9.

Around the Diamond

C Gray Betts enters the weekend averaging a run scored per game. The catcher is second on the Flames with five multi-hit games.
1B Logan Mathieu enters Friday’s contest looking for his first home run of the season. The senior has hit at least four or more in each of his three seasons at Liberty, including 15 last season. Currenlty, he is tied for eighth on the program’s career home run list with 26.
2B Cameron Foster reached base three times with two hits and a walk in Liberty’s 5-3 win over Campbell, last Sunday. He also had a RBI and scored a run in the contest.
SS Jake Lazzaro has made one error in 41 chances in his 11 starts at shortstop this season.

3B Stephen Hill has hit .324 with 10 RBI and 10 runs scored over the last 10 games. Over the span, he has walked eight times and posted a .447 on base percentage.
LF Three Hillier has started the last seven games and has hit .360 with a home run and three RBI.
CF Derek Orndorff leads the ASUN in home runs (10), slugging percentage (1.000), runs scored per game (1.40) and total bases (46).
RF Aaron Anderson leads the Flames with eight multi-hit games on the year. Over the last 10 games, Anderson leads Liberty with a .400 batting average. He has at least one hit in each of the last six games and has reached base safely in each of the last 14.
DH Brady Gulakowski doubled on Tuesday at VCU and has at least one hit in each of the last three games. He has driven in 13 of his 16 RBI during the last 10 games.
SP Trey Gibson and Max Alba both enter the weekend with strikeout per nine innings above 10. Gibson has posted an 11.66 strikeouts per nine innings, while Alba has an 11.57 strikeouts per nine innings.
RP Left-hander Garrett Horn and right-hander Jeremy Beamon have each had a solid start to his collegiate career. Horn has posted a 2-0 record with a 1.64 ERA and 19 strikeouts over 11 innings. Meanwhile, Beamon has a 1-0 mark with a 2.70 ERA over 6 2/3 innings.
RP Left-hander Mason Fluharty leads the Flames in strikeouts with 22 and appearances with eight. He has held opponents to a .156 batting average and has a 16.05 strikeouts per nine nine innings.