[libertyfan4life]

This is awesome~! Congrats Liberty Flames Baseball!!!!! History is made!!

[libertyfan4life]

5-3 Oklahoma up on Coastal in Bottom of the 8th.

[NG33]

Great game for the Flames from beginning to end. Definitely proud of this group of guys.

[LUnpretty11]

Great game for the Flames from beginning to end. Definitely proud of this group of guys.

+1

So stoked for Trey Wimmer. That guy has come a long way and has really produced this year and did it again in a huge way when it mattered most! Awesome all around game from the guys. Great execution!

[alabama24]

Wow. A minor miracle.

[BJWilliams]

I guess Toman got his small miracle today but we clearly outgunned the Tigers from start to finish

[LUminary]

Would be an interesting twist if it's LU vs. St. Louis tomorrow night. Billikens have a decent chance for an upset tonight. Ace Clay Smith appears pretty good, and team has won school-record 41 games.

[BJWilliams]

two wins to go!

[flameshaw]

In spite of too many curve balls, bunts and Toman poor-mouthing, we pull out a squeaker 8-3. As SJ said, probably the biggest D-1 baseball win in LU history.
One of the best things is that we used just one pitcher and we didn't need Perritt to close this one out. If we continue to win, this could be very significant for us.
Hope we can continue to surprise.

[Sly Fox]

Just woke up to this result. Unbelievable!

[flameshaw]

Just woke up to this result. Unbelievable!

Woke up? Unbelievable!!!!!!!

[libertyfan4life]

Would be an interesting twist if it's LU vs. St. Louis tomorrow night. Billikens have a decent chance for an upset tonight. Ace Clay Smith appears pretty good, and team has won school-record 41 games.

St. Louis?

I'd rather see Liberty fight South Carolina, and win. St. Louis is a yawner to me. All eyes would be on the South Carolina vs. Liberty game at South Carolina.

It would also be great to recap the season opener series with South Carolina that began the 2013 Liberty season. Liberty won one of the three game series and lost the other two games by a run each.

For me personally, there's just a little more history with Liberty and South Carolina, more so than St. Louis. IMHO, if we were to beat South Carolina, it would mean alot more to people probably than St. Louis even though a win is a win.

[BJWilliams]

I think the bunts were well placed for the most part and it was good to see us cash in in a big way twice (I hope to see Trey Wimmer among the finalists for the Johnny Bench Award). I agree that this was a major win for us. Clemson (though a bit down of late with the rise of teams like UNC and UVa) is a name that still opens eyes if they are on the wrong end of a boxscore like they are tonight

[Sly Fox]

Just woke up to this result. Unbelievable!

Woke up? Unbelievable!!!!!!!

It is early Saturday morning in Papua New Guinea as I get ready to fly to Japan. Up there I hope to be able to watch the next game online as it will be during more normal daylight hours over here.

[NotAJerry]

I think the bunts were well placed for the most part and it was good to see us cash in in a big way twice (I hope to see Trey Wimmer among the finalists for the Johnny Bench Award). I agree that this was a major win for us. Clemson (though a bit down of late with the rise of teams like UNC and UVa) is a name that still opens eyes if they are on the wrong end of a boxscore like they are tonight

Yes bunting with a 4-2 lead in the 6th, with a guy at the plate who came into the game at .338/.386/.506 and already had a ground rule double, is the right play so that you can follow with a guy who came in on a 1-25 streak and was 0-2 with a sac bunt of his own. That's like saying that you should throw into triple coverage because it worked once. The guys executed very well today, but they did so after being put into unnecessary situations. The Clemson pitchers had shown no ability to get our guys out and we kept giving them outs anyways. That's bad strategy even when it does work.

[jinxy]

Big time win today for the games. Say what you want and we all have about Toman. The last two years we have wins over Clemson, UVA, UNC, USC, UGA, WVU, ECU, and Coastal. I know we all knew the talent we had but it was so frustrating to watch us wilt in the tournament and against crappy teams year after year. It has made this run all the more enjoyable though.

Gotta go with Lambert on the bump tom. He already beat USC and I think has been the second most consistent starter on the team all year.

[BJWilliams]

WHat you also need to consider is Perritt is probably one of the fastest guys on the team (third on the team in SB coming into the day) and had already gotten on base once on an error on his LAST sacrifice bunt. We couldnt assume that the same result would have occurred, but they were playing to another one of his strengths in both cases. Remember also that Perritt's bunting and speed led to two of our victories last week as well.

I do agree with jinxy's assessment that Lambert gets the ball tomorrow if we play SC.

[SuperJon]

Beej, isn't your wife in labor right now?

[BJWilliams]

She's resting at the moment. They started her on some medication and her coach is working with her right now as well so Im on the sidelines but Im in the room with her and occasionally filling in when her coach steps out of the room

[bigsmooth]

i have never seen so much nitpicking from some about a win! we won convincingly and that is all that matters. we are getting more production from the bottom of the lineup and D1 pitched a heckuva game. it does not matter who we play, because the boys will be ready. peaking at the right time!! GO FLAMES!!

[LUminary]

Would be an interesting twist if it's LU vs. St. Louis tomorrow night. Billikens have a decent chance for an upset tonight. Ace Clay Smith appears pretty good, and team has won school-record 41 games.

St. Louis?

I'd rather see Liberty fight South Carolina, and win. St. Louis is a yawner to me. All eyes would be on the South Carolina vs. Liberty game at South Carolina.

It would also be great to recap the season opener series with South Carolina that began the 2013 Liberty season. Liberty won one of the three game series and lost the other two games by a run each.

For me personally, there's just a little more history with Liberty and South Carolina, more so than St. Louis. IMHO, if we were to beat South Carolina, it would mean alot more to people probably than St. Louis even though a win is a win.

Didn't say I would rather see us play St. Louis. And I'm not sure it would enhance our chances if we did. The point was that it would be unexpected to see LU-St. Louis in the winner's bracket game and SC-Clemson, the two teams most everybody would have assumed would win today, in the elimination game. I don't give a flip who we play. Just want another win.

[adam42381]

Pretty is right...Perritt also is a fast enough guy that he could have beat that one out as well...remember now, Perritt bunted in the third, reached on an error, COrdell then bunted and Wimmer blasted a double. This time. COrdell worked a walk and Wimmer cashed it in with his three wood. Now if say J-Size or Close was bunting with a two run lead, THAT would be worth questioning

Bunting in any situation other than a late game scenario where you need exactly 1 run is statistically horrible strategy. We've defied the odds today and scored multiple runs twice after bunting. Even in the situation where you need 1 run, it's not actually the wise percentage play. The expanded chart at the bottom of the link shows that the run expectancy (MLB not college) with a runner on 1B with 0 out is 44.1% while it drops by 41.8% with a runner on 2B with one out. Bunting actually decreases your chance of scoring in that situation.

http://shutdowninning.com/5/post/2012/0 ... iness.html

I came here to post the Run Expectancy Matrix that was referenced in the article NAJ linked. Bunting may work, but statistically it's almost always the wrong decision. The only time it's really a good play is late in a game when you're playing for a single run.

http://www.tangotiger.net/re24.html

[thepostman]

I can't stand Toman, but who the heck cares about my personal opinions?? We just won big and I am so happy for these guys and for my school.

It will be a fun couple of days for sure

[thepostman]

Beej, isn't your wife in labor right now?

+10000000000000000000000000

[Purple Haize]

I can't stand Toman, but who the heck cares about my personal opinions?? We just won big and I am so happy for these guys and for my school.

It will be a fun couple of days for sure

May better position him for a job somewhere else?
But I'm enjoying the ride!