The Liberty Flames are looking to advance to a third straight NCAA Regional this season as we enter the final weekend of the regular season. Liberty is currently 32-18 overall and 18-9 in ASUN play, and are currently sitting alone in first place atop the ASUN East Division standings following a series win at FGCU this past weekend.
Liberty has just three games left on its regular season slate prior to the start of the ASUN Tournament next week. The Flames play host to Kennesaw State this weekend in a series that will determine who is the top seed in the ASUN Tournament. Liberty currently leads the Owls by one game in the conference race.
The Flames are being projected into the NCAA Tournament field by both D1 Baseball and Baseball America this week as the ASUN automatic bid.
The Flames are currently being pegged as a 3-seed in the Nashville, Tennessee Regional by D1Baseball, hosted by No. 14 overall seed Vanderbilt. Other teams in this projected regional include 2-seed Southern Miss and 4-seed Davidson.
The last four teams into the field in this projection are Georgia Tech, UTSA, Clemson, and Old Dominioin. The first four out are Wake Forest, Mercer, Middle Tennessee, and Louisiana.
Tennessee is picked as the No. 1 overall seed while the other regional hosts projected by D1Baseball are Oregon State (2), Virginia Tech (3), Miami (4), Auburn (5), Stanford (6), Maryland (7), Louisville (8), Texas A&M (9), Oklahoma State (10), Notre Dame (11), Florida State (12), Arkansas (13), Vanderbilt (14), Texas Tech (15), and Gonzaga (16).
In Baseball America‘s projected field this week, Liberty is a No. 3 seed in the College Park, Maryland regional where No. 13 overall seed Maryland would be the host alongside No. 2 seed NC State and No. 4 seed Army.
Kennesaw State is being projected by Baseball America as one of the “Next Four Out” as the sixth team out in the pecking order for an at-large.
In other Regional projections this week, Liberty is being projected into the field by College Baseball Nation and College Sports Madness as the ASUN’s automatic qualifier. College Baseball Nation has the Flames in as a three-seed in the Charlottesville Regional. The College Sports Madness projection, which had Liberty as one of the first four teams out of the field last week, now has the Flames in as a three-seed in the Louisville Regional.
If Liberty were to falter in the ASUN Tournament, the Flames would be squarely on the bubble and would have to sweat out the selection show. Liberty’s RPI is currently 39, up from last week’s mark of 43, with a 3-7 record against Quad 1 opponents, 13-7 in Quad 2 games, 3-3 in Quad 3 games, and 13-1 against Quad 4.