Liberty to Take Part in Keith LeClair Classic
3/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Complete Baseball Notes (LeClair Classic)
The Liberty Flames (5-8) travel to Greenville, N.C., for the eighth annual Keith LeClair Classic, Friday-Sunday at Clark-LeClair Stadium. The tournament honors the late Keith LeClair, who coached East Carolina from 1997-2002 and died of ALS in 2006.
The Flames will square off with the Rutgers Scalet Knights (5-5, 0-0 BIG EAST), Friday at 1 p.m. in the classic's opening game. Saturday, Liberty will face the Monmouth Hawks (3-4, 0-0 NEC) at 11 a.m., before closing out the tournament against the host East Carolina Pirates (8-3, 0-0 C-USA) First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Last Time Out
The Tribe of William & Mary used a three-run eighth inning to edge the Flames, 10-9, Tuesday afternoon at Worthington Stadium. The contest saw several lead changes before the Tribe posted the three-run eighth to take home the win. Liberty had taken the lead in the contest on two different occasions, but could not hold it.
The Flames had 15 hits in the contest. Shortstop Matt Williams and first baseman Austin Taylor had three hits apiece to lead Liberty.
On Deck
Liberty travels to College Park, Md., for a two-game midweek series with the Maryland Terapins, Tuesday and Wednesday. Game time each day is 4 p.m.
After the two midweek contests, the Flames return home to start conference play. Liberty will host Charleston Southern in a three-game Big South series at Worthington Stadium, beginning Friday evening. Game is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Following the Flames
All three Liberty contests this weekend may be heard LIVE over the World Wide Web at LibertyFlames.com. In addition, Saturday's contest with Monmouth will be broadcasted on WWMC "The Light" 90.9 FM. Nick Pierce will handle the play-by-play and Doug Wallace color duties for the broadcast.
Remembering Keith LeClair
This weekend's tournament is named in honor of Keith LeClair, who during his collegiate baseball career as a player, assistant coach and head coach at Western Carolina and East Carolina was a part of 13 NCAA Tournament teams and earned five conference coach-of-the-year awards.
LeClair became the second-winningest baseball coach in school history in just five seasons at East Carolina, compiling a 212-96-1 (.688) record. He also led the Pirates to four straight NCAA Regional appearances, three Colonial Athletic Association championships and one Conference USA title. His 2001 club advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals and finished with a No. 11 national ranking after registering a 47-13 mark.
He officially relinquished his coaching duties June 19, 2002, two weeks after leading the Pirates to their fourth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance before finishing with a 43-20-1 record. LeClair remained with the ECU Department of Athletics as a special assistant to the director of athletics until the time of his death on July of 2006.
He is a member of both the East Carolina and Western Carolina Athletic Hall of Fames. LeClair was honored as the first recipient of the Conference USA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's (SAAC) Coaches Choice Award. In addition, the Conference USA Baseball Coach-of-the-Year Award was named in honor of LeClair.
The Keith LeClair Classic Schedule
Friday, March 11
1 p.m. - Rutgers vs. Liberty
5 p.m. - Monmouth at East Carolina
Saturday, March 12
11 a.m. - Liberty vs. Monmouth
3 p.m. - Rutgers at East Carolina
Sunday, March 13
10 a.m. - Monmouth vs. Rutgers
2 p.m. - Liberty at East Carolina
Flames Belt 20 in Game as Bats Come Alive vs. Binghamton
In its home opener last Friday, Liberty pounded out 20 hits, a season-high in a 12-2 win over the Bearcats in the first game of the year at Worthington Stadium. The last time the Flames had 20 or more hits in a single game since Liberty belted 21 hits in a 16-9, 10-inning victory at Presbyterian College on April 25, 2010.
The Flames hit .396 as team during the three games and averaged 9.3 runs per game. Leading the way during the series was catcher Casey Rasmus, who hit .545 and tied for the team-high in hits with six. The junior ripped his first home run of the season and scored four times during the three-game series.
Third baseman Tyler Bream and shortstop Matt Williams also had six hits during the weekend series. Williams hit his first roundtripper of the year and had a double and triple among his hits.
In addtion, infielders Austin Taylor and Justin Sizemore helped power the Liberty offense with big offensive weekends. Taylor hit .444 (4/9) with a double and two home runs, driving in a team-high seven runs during the series. Sizemore belted his first home run of the year and had five RBIs for the Flames.
