Flames to Host Elon, Travel to South Carolina for Midweek Games
5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
ELON AT LIBERTY
May 9
Liberty Baseball Stadium
Lynchburg, Va.
LIBERTY AT SOUTH CAROLINA
May 10
Founders Park
Columbia, S.C.
Tuesday – 6 p.m.
Wednesday – 7 p.m.
COMPLETE BASEBALL NOTES
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Quick Hits
• After taking two games of a three-game series with Campbell this past weekend, Liberty enters the week with a 28-17 overall record and a 14-7 mark in the Big South.
• Liberty will conclude a four-game homestand on Tuesday, before embarking on its final road trip of the season on Wednesday.
• The Flames have posted a 14-4 record on the road in 2017. The mark is the fourth best road record in Division I baseball.
• Elon has a 21-27 overall record in 2017. Tuesday will be the second meeting of the year between the two teams. Liberty won the first meeting, 1-0 in 10 innings on Feb. 28, and holds a 17-12 edge in the all-time series.
• South Carolina plays Presbyterian on Tuesday, before hosting the Flames on Wednesday. The Gamecocks enter the week with a 27-19 overall record. South Carolina leads the all-time series between the two teams, 8-3.
• The 2017 season is Liberty's first under head coach Scott Jackson. Jackson, who was an assistant coach at Liberty in 2008, spent the past eight seasons as an assistant on head coach Mike Fox's staff at North Carolina.
Road Ramblings
Liberty opened an eight-game road trip, its longest of the season, with a 5-2 win at No. 3 North Carolina, on April 18 on their way posting a 6-2 mark during the trip.
The Flames have posted a 14-4 record on the road in 2017. The mark is the fourth best road record in Division I baseball according to WarrenNolan.com. Only No. 1 Oregon State (12-2), North Carolina (11-2) and Mercer (18-5) have better road records.
Liberty hit .302 as a team and outscored their opponents, 86-46, during the eight-game road swing. Outfielder D.J. Artis lead the Flames with a .560 batting average and held a .692 on base percentage during the trip, while first baseman Sammy Taormina belted five home runs and knocked in 18 runs during the eight road games.
Third baseman Trey McDyre teamed with Artis at the top of the Liberty batting to spark the Flames offense. The freshman hit .400 with 15 RBI, the second most during the span, and scored 11 runs. In addition, he hit the first home run of his career, a grand slam in a win in the second game of a doubleheader at Gardner-Webb on April 22.
After the Flames conclude a four-game homestand against Elon on Tuesday, Liberty will complete their 2017 road schedule with a five-game swing, May 10-16. Wednesday's game at South Carolina begins the string of non-conference contests. Of Liberty last 20 regular season games, 13 were or are scheduled to be on the road.
Artis Among National Leaders
Liberty sophomore outfielder D.J. Artis enters the week second in the nation with a .525 OBP. UC Irvine designated hitter Keston Hiura tops the category with a .544 OBP.
Among the Big South leaders with a .354 batting average, Artis leads the nation in bases on balls per game. The Flames' leadoff hitter has averaged 1.4 walks per game and has recieved 48 free passes so far in 2017. He enters the week four shy of tying his Liberty program record of 52, which he set last year as a freshman.
Artis tops the Big South with 47 runs scored. The outfielder averages 1.12 runs per game and is among the top 20 players in NCAA Division I in the category.
Talking Taormina
Flames first baseman Sammy Taormina continues to have quite a final year of collegiate baseball at the plate. The redshirt senior enters the week as the Big South leader with 53 RBI and 106 total bases. In addition, he ranks 27th nationally in RBI. The first baseman also is fourth in the conference with a .589 slugging percentage.
Taormina has hit .322 with 14 doubles, 10 home runs and 34 runs scored. The first baseman appears among the top in the Big South in all four categories.
He leads the Flames with 12 multi-RBI games, including six contests with four or more. On April 28 at Longwood, Taormina collected a career-high seven RBI with three hits and two home runs in Liberty's victory.
The Rock Hill, S.C., native began the year, hitting .577 in seven games over the first two weeks of the 2017 season. Taormina was named the Big South Player of the Week, each week.
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