Liberty Squares off with No. 10 Duke in Final Regular Season Home Game of 2018
5/14/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NO. 10 DUKE AT LIBERTY
May 15
Liberty Baseball Stadium
Lynchburg, Va.
Tuesday – 6 p.m.
COMPLETE BASEBALL NOTES
LFSN TV: Tuesday
LFSN Radio Coverage: 93.3FM ESPN Radio
Live Stats: Tuesday
Quick Hits
• Liberty finishes its 2018 regular season home schedule on Tuesday. The Flames have posted an 18-8 mark at Liberty Baseball Stadium, this season.
• Tuesday's meeting will be the second of the season between Duke and Liberty. The Blue Devils defeated the Flames, 5-2, in Durham, N.C., last Tuesday.
• Liberty is in their second season under Head Coach Scott Jackson. He has led the Flames to a 58-44 record during his two seasons.
There is No Place Like Home
The Flames have posted a 18-8 overall record and a 8-4 mark in Big South Conference play at Liberty Baseball Stadium in 2018. The Flames have outscored their opponents, 184-129, at home, this season.
Liberty enters the weekend, hitting .268 at Liberty Baseball Stadium, while holding opponent batters to a .244 average.
Tre Todd leads the Flames with a .393 batting average, 31 RBI and seven home runs at Liberty Baseball Stadium. D.J. Artis and Cam Locklear have also posted batting averages of .300 or above.
Last season, the Flames went 15-11 at Liberty Baseball Stadium. The Flames started the year, 7-3, at the home.
Liberty has averaged 17 wins per season during the stadium's first five years.
Recognizing the Seniors
On Sunday, the Liberty baseball program and athletics department recognized the five seniors on the baseball roster. The five will be playing their last regular season home game at Liberty Baseball Stadium, today.
Catcher Matt Allen, second baseman Josh Barrick, pitchers Jackson Bertsch and Vinnie Tarantola, and outfielder/first baseman Andrew Yacyk were honored before Sunday's contest.
Artis Continues to Make Mark on Program History
This past weekend, junior outfielder D.J. Artis became one of only three players in Liberty history with over 200 hits, 165 runs scored and 65 stolen bases during their career.
Artis enters the week third all-time in program history with 169 runs scored and 68 stolen bases. He is one stolen base shy of tying his career single-season high for stolen bases of 23. He has swiped 23 in each of his first two seasons as a Flames. He also enters the weekend having scored 57 runs. He is one shy of his personal single season high of 58, which he reached in 2017.
The junior holds the program record with 158 career walks.
Currently, Artis has reached base in 63 straight games. The streak is the longest active streak in the nation. The last time the junior failed to reach base in a contest came on May 2, 2017 at Virginia. He did not start the game and was unable to reach base in a pinch hit appearance. In addition, Artis has reached base in 97 consecutive starts.
With his four hits at St. John's on May 5, Artis became the 21st Liberty player to amass 200 hits during his career.
Todd, Artis Among National Leaders
Tre Todd enters the week as the national leader in bases on balls with 57, while teammate D.J. Artis is 16th with 44. Todd has drawn 1.14 bases on balls per game which also tops the nation. Artis led the nation in walks last season with 62, a Liberty program record.
The Big South leader in on base percentage, Todd enters the week ninth nationally with a .504 OBP. In addition, the Deptford, N.J. native leads the conference in RBI (50) and slugging percentage (.597). He is also among the conference leaders in batting average (seventh), runs scored (fifth), triples (sixth), and home runs (fourth).
Meanwhile, Artis leads the Big South with 57 runs scored and is 12th nationally. He is tied for the Big South lead in doubles with 15 and triples with four. The outfielder is also among the conference leaders in on base percentage (fourth), triples (tied third) and stolen bases (third).
Around the Diamond
- C Jonathan Embry has thrown out 14 runners trying to steal , this season.
- 3B Tyler Galazin has driven in a team-high 10 runs over the last 10 games.
- SS Cam Locklear has hit .389 over his last 10 games, scoring five times.
- LF Tre Todd has posted a .487 batting average when putting the ball in play, this season.
- RF Brandon Rohrer has hit .313 over his last 10 games. Rohrer had two hits and scored two runs in victory over Radford, Sunday.
- DH Ayden Karraker had two hits and scored a season-high three runs, Sunday.
- RP Vinnie Tarantola pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings at Duke, this past Tuesday.
