Liberty Baseball Falls In Two Of Three Weekend Series Games Feb. 21-23
The Liberty University Baseball team fell in two of three games in its weekend series against Xavier University Feb. 21-23. The Flames pulled off a 10-7 win in the first game, but Xavier scorched the Flames in games two and three, defeating them 9-5 and 5-4.
Game one started rough for the Flames. Xavier built a 7-0 lead in the first four innings, preventing Liberty from finding home plate. Despite this, Liberty turned its luck around in the fifth inning.
With two runners on base, redshirt junior outfielder Michael Robertson and redshirt sophomore catcher Tucker Moore, junior infielder Jaxon Sorenson hit an RBI single to send both teammates home.
Later in the fifth inning, freshman infielder and right-handed pitcher Landon Scilley hit an RBI single, allowing sophomore infielder Riley DeCandido to slide home, cutting the Musketeers’ lead down to four.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, sophomore shortstop Tanner Marsh sent Robertson home off a single. A few at bats later, Sorenson hit a double, allowing Marsh to make his way home.
To end the sixth, junior leftfielder Nick Barone beamed the ball to the outfield, giving him the single and Sorenson a trip to home plate, closing in on the Musketeers’ lead with the score 7-6.
The seventh was dry for both teams, but the Flames tied the score in the bottom of the eighth inning. Barone hit the ball out to the fence to give him an RBI triple as Marsh went home.
Scilley earned the Flames’ final three points by hitting a two RBI double, sending senior outfielder Camden Troyer and Barone to home plate. The final run came from Scilley later in the inning off a wild pitch. The Flames shut things down in the top of the ninth, to conclude game one with a Flames win 10-7.
Despite the chilly weather for game two on Saturday, the Flames started off hot in the first inning when Marsh stopped the ball and secured the team’s third out with DeCandido at first base to prevent Xavier from scoring.
At the bottom of the first inning, Troyer hit a fielder’s choice, allowing Marsh to reach home. Sorenson saw his opportunity to dart for home plate during a failed stealing attempt by Troyer at first base, giving the Flames a 2-0 lead. Liberty kept Xavier at bay for the next two innings while finding ways to add three runs to their score.
In the bottom of the third, Barone smashed a homer to end the inning 5-0 for Liberty.
However, Xavier came out swinging in the fourth to stop Liberty’s momentum, scoring two runs and holding the Flames to zero runs.
After two scoreless innings, Xavier pulled away in the seventh. A lull in the Flames defense, allowed the Musketeers to score four runs and take the lead 6-5. After another scoreless inning for Liberty at the bottom of the seventh, Xavier repeated its scoring run in the eighth, getting three players home and upping the score 9-5 for a Musketeers victory.
“We go into every weekend trying to win the series,” Head Coach Bradley LeCroy said. “We had an opportunity today, didn’t happen. I told the guys after the game that you know, think about this one for 30 minutes, flush it. Got a chance to win the series tomorrow and that’s our goal.”
The final game was a tight competition with the scoring starting in the first inning and ceasing until inning six. Liberty held Xavier in the top of the first, and in the bottom, Troyer singled to right field, allowing Barone and Sorenson to score.
Later in the first, Scilley hit an RBI single down the right field line, giving Troyer easy access to the home plate.
From there, both teams were held at a stalemate. It was not until the top of the sixth when Xavier senior outfielder Carter Hendrickson hit a homer to left field, bringing him and sophomore infielder Jake Lambdin home, to push the score to 3-2.
The Flames responded with a run in the bottom of the seventh as Barone sent the ball to the center field fence, allowing DeCandido to advance to home.
The Musketeers scored three more runs in the eighth to take the lead. After locking down Liberty’s offense for the rest of the game, Xavier took the series win.
“We’ve played seven games: we’re five and two. We’ve done a lot of really good things. Do we need to get better, absolutely we do. We will,” LeCroy said. “I told the guys these are great learning lessons, and hopefully we learn from them. They make us better throughout the season.”
The Flames hit the road to face Duke University in a midweek game Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. followed by another weekend series against the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Feb. 28-March 2.
Warden is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion.