Games 5-7: Liberty Drops Series to Hofstra

The second weekend of the season is in the books as Liberty wrapped up a series loss to Hoffstra in games 5-7. Coming off of a series sweep of Quinnipiac and a tight game with Duke in Durham, hopes were high for another sweep or series win. It was not to be though.

It would be easy to sugar-coat the losses or to take a doom-and-gloom attitude to the season. There was plenty to like about the series, and at the same time, there are problems that need to be addressed. But first, a modicum of sugar-coating is necessary.

Hofstra came into the series after being swept by Virginia by scores of 10-8, 21-3, and 11-9. If the Pride can score 8+ runs in two games against a top-15 team, they can hit against just about anyone. If they can find some pitching, which they didn’t have against UVA but did against Liberty, they will be a thorn in the sides of many teams expecting easy games against them.

Friday–Game 5

The first game saw Liberty’s #1 starter Cole Hertzler leave after only one inning. Hofstra jumped out to a 7-1 lead only to see Liberty tie it at 7-7. Hofstra got the big hit late in the game to take a 9-7 lead, but the Flames could not answer.

Saturday–Game 6

Saturday’s game was the polar opposite with a pitchers duel won by Liberty’s Garrett Horn, who pitched six shutout innings. Hofstra’s starter matched Horn through five innings, but the Flames exploded for eight runs in the 6th inning. Hofstra tried to make the game interesting with four runs late, but Liberty held onto the lead.

Sunday–Game 7

This was easily the most frustrating game of the series. Hofstra jumped out to a 7-0 lead through the top of the 4th inning. Liberty added a couple runs in the bottom of the frame, but they then gave back the runs in the top of the 6th. From that point on, Liberty traded runs with Hofstra and could not get a big hit with multiple runners on base in the late innings. It never felt like Liberty was in this one.

Notes

• Friday starter Cole Hertzler had a rough 1st inning but not because he was hit hard. He struck out two, and there was not a single ball hit with any authority whatsoever. There were seeing-eye grounders that made it through the infield, two of which were hit through the shift. It was just one of those innings. Most concerning is his health. I tweeted that I thought I heard Coach Jackson tell an ump that Hertzler was sick, which was nothing surprising considering the Norovirus plaguing the East Coast and Liberty’s student population. After the game, Coach Jackson said it is an injury. Prayers that it was a precautionary move for a minor injury or just soreness and not a long-term injury.

• Saturday starter Garrett Horn went 6 IP / 4 H / 0 R / 2 BB / 9 K / 1.00 WHIP and lowered his ERA to 2.53. Only one other time in his career has he thrown six or more shutout innings (5/18/23 against Bellarmine 7 IP / 1 H / 0 R / 2 BB / 11 K). He ran into trouble against Hofstra in the 5th inning when rain began to fall with temps in the upper-40s. The leadoff hitter reached base on an error. The next two batters struck out and popped out. A single and a walk loaded the bases. He struck out the final batter of the inning on three straight strikes. He fought back like an ace, and in the 6th went three up, three down with two swinging strikeouts. Liberty needed this length after the bullpen was taxed on Friday with eight innings. The Flames will need more production and length like this if Horn is forced into the Friday night role, especially against the big bats at Coastal next weekend.

• In the rubber match, Bryce Dolby picked up his second start of the season, and it did not go well. He needed 72 pitches to get through 3.2 innings. He ended with 6 H / 5 R / 5 ER / 3 BB / 2 K. This makes two starts in a row in which he has struggled. Liberty overcame the first one, but they were not able to in this one.

• For the weekend, Liberty used 12 relief pitchers–4 on Friday, 2 on Saturday, and 6 on Sunday. In total, relievers threw 16.1 IP, but unlike the previous weekend and against Duke when the relievers were outstanding as a whole, almost all of them gave up runs against Hofstra. Their slash line for the weekend was 16.1 IP / 16 H / 18 R / 14 ER / 15 BB / 16 K / 4 HR. The ratios for that line are an unsightly 7.71 ERA and 1.90 WHIP. One problem for Liberty last year was walks. Flames pitchers had avoided that this year so far, but not over this weekend. Astonishingly, only three relief pitchers pitched a shutout in their time on the mound.

• The best relief appearance for the weekend was from RHP Trey Carter. In his first outing of the season, he went 3 IP / 0 H / 0 R / 1 BB / 0 K, and he only needed 33 pitches to get through those 3 innings. Amazingly, he did not strike any batters out, which is quite unusual for him. Don’t let that stat fool you though. He was dealing and looked like he was in last year’s midseason form when he was dominant. Of the nine outs he tallied, a whopping seven of them were on ground outs. He was the best pitcher not named Garrett Horn this weekend.

• The other two relievers who did not give up a run were Spencer Williams and Ty Goodson.

• Walks were a problem all weekend with 5 on Friday, 4 on Saturday, and 11 (!) on Sunday. After walking no one at Duke, the walks were surprising. Sunday’s game was almost impossible to win even if the bats were on fire. Liberty gave up 25 hits+walks+hit batters in nine innings. To put that number in perspective, Hofstra averaged almost 3 base runners per inning. It’s somewhat shocking that Liberty held Hosfstra to 12 runs with that many runners.

• On the hitting side, the star of the weekend was undoubtedly CF Kane Kepley, who hit two home runs, scored five runs, and knocked in six RBI. Add in a double and a couple walks to go with his four hits. For the season he is slashing .379/.486/.690/1.176. The .690 SLG% is the only number completely out of place, but he showed some power in summer ball that hopefully is translating into some power for Liberty.

• 1B/C Brayden Horton got back into action after missing significant time during the spring and the first week of the season. He played 1B on Friday, DH on Saturday, and catcher on Sunday. On Friday, he went 3-4 with a run and 3 RBI, which all came on 3-run moon shot that carried and carried and carried with it coming down on top of the right field bullpen fence. The right fielder couldn’t get to it, and it bounced off the fence into the bullpen. He is behind other hitters after missing so much time in the batter’s box, but the timing will come sooner than later.

• 2B Aidan Sweatt began his Flames career with a red-hot start in the opening series against Quinnipiac with 7 hits in his first 11 ABs. Since then he has slumped a bit with only 2 hits in the last four games. The results might not be there in the box score, but he is still hitting the ball hard. Like the rest of the lineup, it seemed like all of his hard hit balls against Hofstra were right at someone. Expect him to bust out of the slump soon.

• LF Noah Rabon has also cooled significantly from the opening series. He has mixed in a bunch of 1-for-4s and 1-for-3s over the past four games. He does not strike out much, and he has been in the middle of most big innings for the Flames this season. He has gotten on base in every game this season and only has one game without a hit.

• 3B Cam Foster has not lit the world on fire in either series so far this season with several multi-hit games. What he has done though is pick up big hits with runners on base. On Saturday, he broke the game open with a bases-loaded, bases-clearing double off of the wall in the 6th inning. On Sunday, he added a two-run single. The biggest plus for Foster this season is his continued discipline at the plate. He has only 6 strike outs through 7 games with three of them in the Sunday game where the Hofstra pitchers had both him and Kepley off balance much of the day. If he continues to keep the strike outs down, the hits will come.

• RF Camden Troyer continued his very steady season against Hofstra. Besides Rabon, he is the only other player to reach base in all 7 games. He has hit a bunch of doubles and a home run leading to a season slash-line of .300/.364/.600/.964. He had a 2-4 game on Saturday with a triple in the 6th that would have scored multiple runners except for the fact that he was hitting behind Foster who had just cleared the bases.

• C Macaddin Dye, who should be a high school senior, is another Flames hitter who had a scorching opening series but slumped this past weekend. He has been hitless since Quinnipiac, but he is not striking out a ton. A day off on Sunday hopefully gets him back on track.

• SS Tanner Marsh is a work in progress. In game 2, he had three hits with two doubles. Since then, he has one hit. Encouragingly, he picked up two walks in Sunday’s game. His approach at the plate is good, so the hits will come.

• DH Three Hillier got the start at DH on Friday. He is still not able to throw, so he is limited to hitting. All he did was hit a triple in a key part of the game to score one, and then he scored on the Horton home run.

• IF Brian McClellin also picked up a couple starts at 1B on Saturday and Sunday. He had two of the more interesting and strange-looking stat lines that you will ever see. On Saturday, he was 0-1 with two runs, a walk, and 2 HBPs. On Sunday, he was 0-1 with a run, an RBI, and two walks.

• 1B Easton Amundsen started at DH on Sunday and had a good day at the plate. He went 1-3 with a run, an RBI, a walk, and a HBP. He has good power, so hopefully we will get to see some of it moving forward.

This Week

• The Flames travel to Wilmington for a game Wednesday against UNCW (5-3).
• Then, Liberty visits the Beach Chickens for the biggest series so far this season. Coastal is ranked in the top-25 and is the real deal. It’s a huge opportunity for Liberty, and it’s the type of opportunity that they couldn’t capitalize on last season. It’s time for the Flames to break out and grab a huge series win, and what better place to do it than at that place near the beach?