Liberty Baseball Dominates Canisius, Now Faces UNC And Campbell

The Flames, ranked No. 14 by D1baseball.com, have won 10 consecutive games since a season-opening loss at Florida including a three-game series sweep  against Canisius March 4-6.

Pitching has been the driving force behind the Flames’ success. The team has allowed only three runs per game despite allowing seven runs in the season-opening loss to the Gators. 

The leader of the star-studded pitching staff for the Flames has been redshirt-junior Joe Adametz III. Following a quiet 2021 season due to Tommy John surgery to repair an injured elbow ligament, Adametz has come out of the gate firing, boasting an absurd earned run average of 0.56 through three starts. 

“I just had a lot of time to think and pray and find where I could compete in myself,” Adametz said. “I just saw a lot of success from our team last year and what worked for them, so it’s just been about trying to carry that success and obviously understanding what I do well and not going away from that has really, really helped.” 

Adametz was the winning pitcher of the series-opening game against Canisius after going six innings without allowing an earned run. The Flames snuck out a 4-1 win. 

The Flames won the second game of the series, defeating Canisius 14-3 to secure its third straight series win of the season. 

In the third game, it was much of the same. Liberty won 14-5 but individually, Derek Orndorff starred. 

Orndorff hit his ninth and 10th home runs of the season. Orndorff now leads the nation in home runs, just edging out N.C. State freshman Tommy White’s total of nine. 

The Flames’ win streak has now reached double digits, but the team has its sights on bigger things. 

“I think when we’re at our best, we are a top contender in the country to host a regional, to win a regional (and) to win a super regional,” Adametz said. “I expect us to do really well this year, and it’s probably the best team I’ve been on since I’ve been here.”

Junior catcher Gray Betts echoed that sentiment. 

“I think we’re very capable of making a deep run in the postseason,” Betts said. “I’m not really going to put a direct label on it, but I know that we can go far, and we have the talent and the ability to.” 

Despite the lofty expectations, the Flames must continue to work on the little things to achieve greater success. 

“We’ve got our sights set on Omaha and getting all the way there, but obviously that doesn’t happen unless we do what we need to do the next day and the day after that,” Adametz said. “We’re not trying to look too far ahead but just use that as a goal and as motivation to get to where we want to get to.” 

The Flames have made the NCAA regionals each of the last two seasons, and they are poised to do the same in 2022. 

MCCusker is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter