The Liberty Flames will be the No. 7 seed for the next week’s Big South Baseball Championship. The seedings and pairings were announced, following the close of the 2016 regular season, this afternoon. The tournament will be contested, May 24-28 at the Lexington County Baseball Stadium in Lexington, S.C.
Winners of six out of their last seven games, Liberty, 28-27 overall, posted a 12-12 record in Big South Conference play to finish tied for sixth place with Presbyterian and Winthrop in the conference standings. Both the Blue Hose and the Eagles claimed tiebreakers over the Flames for seeding purposes.
Liberty will play in Bracket One during the conference championship and will face the High Point Panthers in the first game of the day at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday. High Point finished conference action tied with Gardner-Webb and Longwood for second place with a 14-10 mark, claiming the tiebreaker and the No. 2 seed for the tournament. The Panthers have a 31-22 overall mark.
Liberty and High Point met in a three-game series to end the regular season at Coy O. Willard Stadium, this pastThursday and Friday. The Flames won the series, 2-1.
It will be the second straight season that Liberty and High Point will meet in the first round of the conference tournament. Last season, the No. 5 seed Panthers defeated No. 4 seed Liberty, 8-3, in Game 4 of the 2015 Big South Baseball Championship at John Henry Moss Stadium in Boiling Springs, N.C.
In addition, Flames shortstop Dalton Britt is expected to start his 236th game of his career to set a new Liberty program record for career games played. Britt will surpass the previous mark set by Trey Wimmer (2009-14) of 235.
Nationally-ranked Coastal Carolina captures the Big South regular season title and the No. 1 seed for the conference championship with a 21-3 mark in league play. The No. 20 Chanticleers have posted a 40-15 overall record.
After High Point, Longwood and Gardner-Webb are the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, respectively after the tiebreakers. Campbell closed out the campaign officially in fifth place at 13-11, but is not eligible for the Baseball Championship this year due to an APR penalty. Presbyterian claims the No. 5 seed, followed by Winthrop and Liberty after tiebreakers. Radford, the defending Big South Champion, rounds out the field as the No. 8 seed.
The 2016 Big South Baseball Championship features the top eight teams in the league and will be played at Lexington County Baseball Stadium in Lexington, S.C. The first three days of games will air on the Big South Network, while the semifinals and winner-take-all championship game will air exclusively on ESPN3. The winner of the championship game receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
In addition, each Liberty contest during the tournament will be broadcast on the radio by the Liberty Flames Sports Network.
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