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at Liberty
5/9/2026 | 2 p.m.
May. 09 (Sat) / 2 p.m.
at Liberty
LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Diamond ‘Dogs (30-21, 16-9 CUSA) have a second consecutive victory after securing a comfortable 9-3 win over Liberty (35-15, 18-7 CUSA) on Friday night at Wilmington Field at Liberty Baseball Stadium in Lynchburg.
The first six ‘Dogs were retired in order to start the contest until Wesley Scott led off the third with a walk drawn on a 3-2 count. A sacrifice bunt advanced Scott before a Casey McCoy single and a walk drawn by Colby Lunsford loaded the bases with one out.
Trey Hawsey drove in the first run with an RBI groundout followed up with Colton Coates knocking a two-run base hit in shallow center field, giving the ‘Dogs a 3-0 lead heading to the bottom half of the third.
A one-out walk and single is how Liberty responded and both runners advancing 90 feet on a failed pickoff attempt that trailed into the outfield. An RBI knock gave the Flames their first run of the evening and a sacrifice fly cut Tech’s lead to just one run.
Both sides were quiet through the fourth and fifth frames before Tech grew its advantage with a crooked number in the sixth. Base knocks from Hawsey and Eli Berch gave the ‘Dogs a pair of runners with both eventually advancing 90 feet on a wild pitch.
Now with two runners in scoring position, Sebastian Mexico cashed in with a two-run hit back up the middle of the infield, giving the ‘Dogs a 5-2 lead. A first-pitch RBI knock delivered by the Liberty side closed the gap, forcing a pitching change on the Tech side with two outs. Nate Crider entered out of the pen in a high-leverage situation with the tying run on first.
The right-handed reliever threw three-straight breaking balls before a fouled off heater evened the count at 2-2. Crider then served a breaking ball running away from the right-handed hitter to get the swinging strikeout and leave the tying run stranded.
The eighth began with Coates putting himself in scoring position on a one-out double followed with a walk drawn by Mexico. McCann Libby entered as a pinch runner for Mexico before him and Coates came across the plate on a backside double off the bat of Matt Houston.
Houston’s fly ball looked like a makable play for the Flames right fielder, but misread and overran it as the ball hit the ground just behind the outfielder, allowing Coates and Libby to grow Tech’s advantage to 7-3.
Late insurance was provided by Hawsey as the first baseman delivered an RBI knock back up the middle for the third-straight single of the frame after back-to-back knocks from McCoy and Colby Lunsford. After a pitching change and a strikeout, Berch delivered a two-out knock allowing Lunsford to score Tech’s ninth run of the night.
Luke Nichols earned the win in relief, tossing 1.2 innings allowing one earned run with a pair of strikeouts and two hits allowed. Thomas Allen earned his fourth save of the season after closing out the final three frames of the game. The freshman held Liberty scoreless, allowing just one walk and one hit in his outing.
Coates, Mexico and Houston each picked up a pair of RBI, with Coates, Hawsey and McCoy also picking up multi-hit performances in Friday’s win. Houston extended his hitting streak to 10 games—the longest active streak on the team. Hawsey’s reached base streak extended to 20 games—the longest streak since Dalton Davis reached safely in 22 consecutive games in 2024.
Throughout the 2024 season, five different ‘Dogs saw streaks of 20+ games reaching base safely.
Game 2 of the series is set for Saturday, May 9 at 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. ET at Wilmington Field in Lynchburg.
Quotables
Head Coach Lane Burroughs:
“The plan coming in was to get their starter’s pitch count up. He’s going to get his strikeouts—that’s who he is and what he does, and you can’t allow that to affect you. I thought Wesley Scott had an at-bat in the third inning and he kept fouling pitches off, kept spitting on close pitches and he ended up drawing a walk. I thought that was the at-bat of the night because that’s what we were looking for. When you strike people out your pitch count goes up, and we felt like if we kept battling, we could get it up. He threw more than 30 pitches in the third, and that was a crucial inning for us to do anything to get into their bullpen. Declan didn’t have his best stuff, but Friday night aces are true competitors and grind it out. They find a way to navigate the lineup more than once and he was able to get us through four. I thought Luke Nichols was outstanding in relief, but I think the biggest play of the night was Nate Crider’s punchout of Tanner Marsh when they were threatening to score in the sixth. That might’ve been when the game turned in our favor. Mexico makes a great play in left field—that could’ve been trouble for us if that ball falls. We just got some huge hits with two outs, we only had two extra-base hits—Houston’s double and Coates’ double, but we did enough and kept pushing. That was the whole theme of the scouting report was to keep fighting and keep pushing. Couldn’t be prouder of our guys. Liberty doesn’t lose much here, so it was a huge win for us.”
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