Scott Jackson and the rest of the Liberty baseball staff entered a silent clubhouse a little more than a week ago. Nearly 30 minutes had passed since the Flames’ season came to an end in the Big South Conference tournament semifinals, and the coaches allowed the players to absorb the moment.
There was agony. A longing for the season to continue. The anguish of leaving the bases loaded in a fourth elimination game.
Jackson could tell it was a feeling his players didn’t want to experience again.
“There’s a lot to build on in our program, and I just asked our guys to remember this feeling because it can really motivate you,” the second-year coach said.
Liberty extended his streak of 30-win seasons to 14 by going 32-26 in Jackson’s second season, and the program enters a new era with the move to the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Baseball, along with 16 other non-football sports, will join the ASUN on July 1, and the move was welcomed by Jackson as the Flames move to a competitive baseball conference.
Stetson became the first ASUN program to earn a national seed, and the 11th-seeded Hatters enter the NCAA Tournament riding a national-best 15-game winning streak to go with the fourth-best RPI.
Jacksonville earned an at-large bid and is the No. 2 seed in the Gainesville Regional thanks to its No. 23 RPI ranking and 11 wins against top-100 teams.
The ASUN ranks seventh in conference RPI, while the Big South is 24th.
“We’ve got to get better. That’s what is at the front of your mind when I wake up in the morning,” Jackson said. “When February 15 or whatever opening day is rolls around, how can we get better between now and then? We’ll have some player meetings and address it with some of those guys the next few days and just talk about what they need to improve on. It’s a big challenge for us. … It bolsters the opportunity for us to get in the mix there. We’ve got to continue to make strides forward and get to the end and finish a little bit stronger than we’ve had the first two years with this staff.”
Jackson has focused on pitching and defense during his recruiting trips, and he has also centered on those two aspects while crafting the current roster.
The Flames lose two pitchers to graduation (Vinnie Tarantola and Jackson Bertsch), but return several prominent pieces in Zach Clinton (LCA), Garret Price (LCA), Noah Skirrow and Zack Brockman.
Jackson will also have right-handers Jack DeGroat, Andrew McInvale and Evan Brabrand back from injury to bolster a weekend rotation that was in a constant state of flux during the regular season.
Skirrow and Brockman were two of several freshmen who played significant roles during the season. Logan Barker, Brady Stamper, Ben Good and Mason Hand all pitched during the season, while Logan Mathieu and Brandon Rohrer cracked the starting lineup late in the season.
“We saw some growth all around, our freshmen especially,” junior outfielder Ayden Karraker said. “We had a lot of freshmen starters and they did well and they’ll continue to grow even more.”
Designated hitter Andrew Yacyk, infielder Josh Barrick (LCA) and catcher Matt Allen graduated, and the Flames are expected to also lose center fielder D.J. Artis, who projected to be selected early on the second day of the upcoming Major League Baseball draft.
“Andrew Yacyk, Josh Barrick, they’ve given just an incredible amount to this program,” Jackson said.
But Jackson returns a lineup that will feature senior leadership in Karraker, third baseman Tyler Galazin, left fielder Tre Todd and first baseman Dylan Allen.
Catcher Jonathan Embry finally had full season behind the plate and drove in 36 runs in a breakout sophomore season.
“This program is in really good hands,” Artis said, “and I can’t wait to see what happens.”