A Sea Of Red

The lack of success the last couple of seasons was kind of baffling. There was no shortage of talent and Jackson kept bringing in quality assistants. I’m not convinced this years team is anymore talented than last years but there just seems to be a different mindset that’s leading to the success.

Jackson may have had his "eye on UNC", the past 2 years. Sort of like Freeze had his eye on Auburn

I don’t think that’s true.

Coaching , recruiting, mentoring, leadership - it can all get stale. It’s extremely rare a coach stays anywhere, let alone a mid major like Liberty, for the long haul.

JK37 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2025, 10:27 am I don’t think that’s true.

Coaching , recruiting, mentoring, leadership - it can all get stale. It’s extremely rare a coach stays anywhere, let alone a mid major like Liberty, for the long haul.

Cary Green, Dot Richardson

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ballcoach15 wrote:

JK37 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2025, 10:27 am I don’t think that’s true.

Coaching , recruiting, mentoring, leadership - it can all get stale. It’s extremely rare a coach stays anywhere, let alone a mid major like Liberty, for the long haul.

Cary Green, Dot Richardson

Well, if you pay them P5 money, they will stay. Most G5 schools can't do what we do.

His point still stands doesn't it? They're P4's who don't even spend "P4" kind of money and the coaches leave when there's a chance for a more affluent deal. Just a thought.

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2025, 12:51 pm

JK37 wrote: ↑March 19th, 2025, 10:27 am I don’t think that’s true.

Coaching , recruiting, mentoring, leadership - it can all get stale. It’s extremely rare a coach stays anywhere, let alone a mid major like Liberty, for the long haul.

Cary Green, Dot Richardson

You’re just proving my point.

Flames down 5-4 in the ninth
Sorenson with a 2-run, walk off bomb to go 1-0 in conference.

Gritty team

Disappointing to drop a game to NMSU at home. The lineup did score a fair amount (eventually), but ultimately couldn’t score enough. Bullpen struggled and so did Blair, but I still trust them both. I hope coach is considering changing the everyday lineup.

I’ll add that this is an impressive beginning to the year for coach LeCroy. Liberty lost Kepley, Horten, Hertzler, Horn, and Moran, yet this team is competing, and has won 3/5 ACC matchups (4 of which were at ACC ballparks). I think a regional appearance is realistic for this team, and maybe the supers aren’t that far away.

Very difficult series loss to swallow. Further, it’s mildly concerning we’ve now lost three series already this year, and the competition hasn’t been all that fierce. Hopefully we get that figured out.

Another ACC win tonight. This time over an unranked UVA team.

The first game of today’s double header says we lost 9-0 “forfeit” on the LU website. What happened?

Apparently Liberty did not list Ben Blair on the 27-player roster submitted to the conference. Since he was ineligible and participated in the game, Liberty was forced to forfeit. Without further context, this seems like an absolutely egregious error.

AATL wrote: ↑March 29th, 2025, 4:08 pm Apparently Liberty did not list Ben Blair on the 27-player roster submitted to the conference. Since he was ineligible and participated in the game, Liberty was forced to forfeit. Without further context, this seems like an absolutely egregious error.

So did the game end after the first pitch of the bottom of the first?

If so that is absolutely absurd and there is no excuse on how or why that slips through the coaching staff. That’s ridiculous and cannot happen.

Yes. Blair threw one pitch, at which point Jax State called time and brought the lineup card to the crew chief. Initially, they sent Blair off and started warming up Webb to take his place as the starter. Webb completed his warm ups and was out on the mound to take over and restart the game.

It then turned into a lengthy discussion on the field, and Liberty formally put the game under protest. The crew called the conference office, and the conference ruled that Liberty must forfeit the game due to use of an ineligible player.

Absolutely insane.

Good thing they pulled off the comeback on Friday night's game. Couldn't afford the sweep if we lose game 3.
On a side note, it was pretty cool hearing Eli Gold call the game on ESPN+.

When I turned it on they were trying to keep the coaches physically separated.

TH Spangler wrote:When I turned it on they were trying to keep the coaches physically separated.

If Blair wasn't on the roster, it's an absolutely inexcusable error by the Liberty staff. The fault is entirely on Liberty, and I'm sure the conference is within the letter of the law to punish them accordingly. As a fan, my disappointment is entirely with my own team.

Even still, Bieser handled that with as little sportsmanship as possible, and I can understand why LeCroy was angry. It's not like this was the 7th inning and the player in question had produced an impact on the game. He was clearly aware of the issue ahead of time and was deliberate in waiting until one single pitch had been thrown so he could push for forfeiture.

Amongst other alternatives, even pointing out the issue when Blair was finishing warm-ups would have had a heavily detrimental impact on Liberty while still allowing the players to compete and fans to attend the game they paid for. This wasn't a do-or-die elimination game, a postseason game, or anything high stakes. I think it can be within the letter of the law and still just be absolutely lame.

The confrontation occurred in the next game, around second base. When two or three players had words. Then both coaches got involved.

For what it’s worth I would have done the same exact thing as a coach. Informed the umpire after the first pitch.

That is absolutely inexcusable as others have said. The coaches cannot let this happen again. There’s no way this can happen.

We lost the series. Or maybe the players split and the coaches go 0-1. Either way we are 2-4 in conference play. Less than ideal.

LU’s staff made an inexcusable error.

If JSU staff noticed LU’s error in time for something to be done, they could’ve said something before it was an issue. They could’ve also said nothing and quietly let them know postgame. The JSU staff could’ve made an ally for life.

I don’t want to “win” a game that way. That’s small.

What if one game separates the two teams late in the season, and the outcome of this one impacts seeding?

JK37 wrote: ↑March 29th, 2025, 8:01 pm LU’s staff made an inexcusable error.

If JSU staff noticed LU’s error in time for something to be done, they could’ve said something before it was an issue. They could’ve also said nothing and quietly let them know postgame. The JSU staff could’ve made an ally for life.

I don’t want to “win” a game that way. That’s small.

What if one game separates the two teams late in the season, and the outcome of this one impacts seeding?

Then I would say that’s a huge win for the JSU staff to take advantage of the LU staffs stupidity to help them get a better seed for the tournament.

I don’t feel like it’s small or dirty because it’s so obvious and within the rules. It’s pure laziness or oversight or stupidity or whatever you want to call it on the part of this staff and they should suffer the consequences of the mistake.
I would hope and expect the LU staff would try to get an easy win out of this too if the situation was reversed.

Now if this was some type of little league (I understand they don’t turn in rosters but just for the sake of argument) then by all means let the kids play. Winning and losing isnt as important. This is division one baseball. There is winning and losing and that’s it.