Tag: Liberty Flames

Duke moves up to No. 7 in latest D1 Baseball poll after five straight wins and a weekend sweep of Miami

Duke baseball back on the rise in latest D1Baseball poll.

The Duke Blue Devils have found their groove.

After a 4-0 week, the Duke baseball team has won its previous five games. If you look further past that, the Blue Devils won eight of their last nine baseball games.

Duke dominated Liberty midweek on the road 9-4 before returning to Durham and sweeping the Miami Hurricanes for the first time in Duke baseball history. They took care of Miami with some heroics, too, walking off the Hurricanes on both Friday and Sunday and overcoming a six-run deficit in the final game.

Duke enters week eight of the season after moving up two spots to No. 7 in the latest D1 Baseball poll for their efforts. They moved up two spots from ninth and are now knocking on the door to cracking the top five.

 

The rest of the ACC remains well-represented in the Top 25, as Clemson remains steady as the second-ranked team in the poll. Florida State is now the 10th-ranked team, while Virginia and UNC are 11th and 13th, respectively. Wake Forest, the preseason No. 1, has started to play much better and is back up to 14th. Virginia Tech rounds out the ACC’s involvement as they place 16th.

Duke closes out this four-game homestand with William & Mary on Tuesday and is scheduled for a 6 p.m. first pitch. They return to ACC action next weekend with a three-game road series against the Pitt Panthers.

Oklahoma Sooners beat Liberty Flames 15-3 behind 7 extra base hits

Behind seven extra base hits, the Oklahoma Sooners cruised to a 15-3 win over Liberty.

The Oklahoma Sooners bats came to life in a 15-3 throttling of the Liberty Flames to improve to 18-0 on the season. In the process, they extended their record win streak to 71 games.

[autotag]Nicole May[/autotag] got the start for the Sooners. After giving up three runs in the first inning to Miami (OH), May held the Red Hawks scoreless for the remainder of her outing. That continued against Liberty on Saturday as she threw three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit in the process.

The Sooners got the scoring going in the second inning when [autotag]Cydney Sanders[/autotag] launched a solo shot to deep left-center field. It was her third home run of the season on a day where Sanders went 2-for-2 with the home run, a double, a walk, and four RBIs.

Still in the second, after she doubled and advanced to third on a [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] single, [autotag]Alynah Torres[/autotag] scored on a passed ball to make it 2-0. [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] then crushed her sixth home run of the season to make put OU up 4-0. [autotag]Kinzie Hansen[/autotag] then added another run on a Liberty throwing error to put the Sooners well in front 5-0.

More: Social media reacts to Sooners walk-off win in Love’s Field opener

In the Sooners next at bat in the bottom of the third, the Sooners put up seven runs on five hits. Sanders added three runs in a base-clearing double to put Oklahoma up 12-0 after three.

In the bottom of the fourth, [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] had an RBI single and [autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag] a two-run home run, putting Oklahoma up 15-0.

More: Best photos from Opening Day at Love’s Field.

Oklahoma allowed three runs in the top of the fifth on back-to-back home runs, but the game was already well decided at that point.

Six different Sooners had at least two hits, led by Coleman’s three-hit game.

Oklahoma will close out the OU Tournament with a game against Louisiana on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. CT at Love’s Field.

More: How to watch No. 1 Oklahoma in the OU Tournament

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Liberty coach Jamey Chadwell claims LSU paid transfer WR CJ Daniels $300,000 among other benefits

Liberty coach Jamey Chadwell claimed LSU paid out more than a quarter million to CJ Daniels while also providing him with an apartment and car.

College football has always been a dog-eat-dog world, but with the growing disparity in resources, particularly when it comes to NIL benefits, we’ve seen that gap become as wide as it’s ever been.

This is perhaps best exemplified by Liberty, which lost a number of star players to the portal following a 13-1 season that saw it reach the New Year’s Six for the first time.

Among the players who left is receiver [autotag]CJ Daniels[/autotag], who joined LSU, and Flames coach Jamey Chadwell didn’t mince words when discussing it, according to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.

Per Dellenger, Chadwell claimed that LSU paid Daniels $300,000 to come to Baton Rouge while also paying for both a car and an apartment.

“Those guys would be all-conference for us,” Chadwell said, per the report. “LSU paid for a car and an apartment and like $300,000. What do you do?”

Daniels is coming off a 1,000-yard season at Liberty, and he was considered one of the top wideouts in the portal this offseason.

This is certainly not the only case where something like this has potentially happened, but if it were true, it would be understandable why so many coaches at the Group of Five level feel a sense of hopelessness with where the sport is heading, a theme that was the ultimate centerpiece of Dellenger’s article.

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D1Baseball’s Top 25 keeps Duke at No. 12 in latest poll

Duke remains steady at No. 12 in latest D1Baseball poll.

Duke’s season got off to a picture-perfect start this past weekend as they went undefeated in the Baseball at the Beach tournament hosted by No. 25 Coastal Carolina.

Despite Duke’s 3-0 start to their season, even with a win over a top-25 Chanticleers team in their home stadium, D1Baseball didn’t move the Blue Devils up in their latest poll.

At the top, the class of the ACC remains Wake Forest as the Demon Deacons held steady as the No. 1 team in the country after dominating their first three games of the season. Arkansas moved up from third to second, and LSU moved up from fourth to third.

Florida dropped from second to fifth as the Gators lost their only game of the season to St. John’s. Their remaining weekend games were canceled due to inclement weather.

Another ACC foe for the Blue Devils, the Clemson Tigers, stays strong at No.10 after they swept Xavier behind some explosive offense. N.C. State remained at 13 despite a 2-1 weekend, while UNC remained at 15th after a perfect 3-0 weekend.

Duke will get a boost on its NCAA Tournament resume as their opening day opponent, Indiana, vaulted themselves into the Top 25 after a 2-1 showing in Conway, South Carolina. Their only loss was to the Blue Devils on Friday, but they bounced back and beat George Mason and Coastal to wrap up the weekend.

Duke will return to Durham to kick off a 10-game homestand. The first of those ten home games will come Wednesday as they host Liberty. Liberty started their season with a three-game sweep of Quinnipiac. The Flames were also selected to finish second in conference standings in its first season in the league by the head coaches in the 2024 CUSA Preseason Baseball Poll.

Who is LSU’s most important newcomer in 2024?

CJ Daniels could immediately become the top target in LSU’s passing game next fall.

LSU enters the 2024 season with some optimism as the [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] era is set to begin in Baton Rouge. But there’s no denying the fact that this team lost a lot of production from last fall.

Heisman-winning quarterback [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] is gone, as are the top-two offensive weapons in [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag], as well as quite a bit of depth at defensive line and in the secondary.

With that in mind, LSU will be relying heavily on some of its newcomers this offseason, and perhaps none of them have the chance to be more impactful than Liberty receiver transfer [autotag]CJ Daniels[/autotag].

Daniels is coming off a 1,000-yard season with the Flames and could immediately become the top target in the passing game. ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren listed Daniels as the Tigers’ most important newcomer in 2024.

LSU is losing its top two receivers from last season in Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., who are both off to the NFL. The two combined for 2,746 of the team’s 4,406 receiving yards and 31 of the team’s 44 receiving touchdowns. That is a lot of production to try to replace this offseason, but Daniels should help. He’s a 6-foot-2, 200-pound receiver who led Liberty in receiving yards and touchdowns this past season with 1,067 yards and 10 touchdowns. He should be an instant-impact player.

With questions surrounding the defense once again, LSU will hope that adding a receiver of Daniels’ caliber helps it maintain the offensive success that carried the team to 10 wins this fall.

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LSU transfer receiver set to make noise in the SEC in 2024

Liberty transfer CJ Daniels is coming off a 1,000-yard season with the Flames.

LSU took a much more methodical approach to the transfer portal this offseason, taking significantly fewer players than it has in the previous two cycles. But that doesn’t mean the transfer haul is devoid of star talent.

Arguably the Tigers’ most prized addition in that group is [autotag]CJ Daniels[/autotag], a receiver from Liberty who is coming off a 1,000-yard season with the Flames. Both [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] are set to move on, and that could open the door for Daniels to emerge as the team’s top wideout next season.

CBS Sports’ Will Backus recently broke down a number of transfers who will make noise in the SEC this season, and Daniels was listed among them.

The 6-foot-2 Daniels spent the past three seasons as one of Liberty’s top offensive playmakers, though he battled through an injury-riddled campaign in 2022. He had his first 1,000-yard receiving performance in 2023 with 10 touchdowns and a whopping 19.4 yards per catch. He should thrive in LSU’s big-play offense with his combination of size and explosive ability. There’s plenty of opportunity for Daniels to shine with both Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. off to the NFL. They’re taking a combined 2,746 yards receiving — 62.3% of LSU’s 2023 team total — and 31 total touchdowns with them.

Daniels will still be competing with the likes of [autotag]Kyren Lacy[/autotag], [autotag]Chris Hilton[/autotag], [autotag]Aaron Anderson[/autotag] and others, but he immediately becomes the most experienced and proven player in the room.

That should help a lot with a new quarterback set to take over in [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag].

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LSU receiver CJ Daniels a top-10 transfer, per On3

The Tigers haven’t been as active in the portal as some other teams, but CJ Daniels could have one of the biggest impacts of any transfer in 2024.

Heading into 2024, it’s clear the LSU coaching staff has taken a much different approach to the transfer portal.

The Tigers were very aggressive the prior two offseasons, landing a lot of players in each class. But after a season where that strategy backfired a bit, especially on defense, it’s clear the staff is refocusing on developing home-grown talent.

That doesn’t mean LSU has entirely neglected the portal, though. Its six-man class may not be the nation’s most impressive, but it features some immediate-impact players. And likely no player in the group is set to have a bigger impact than [autotag]CJ Daniels[/autotag], who On3 ranks as the No. 8 overall transfer and No. 2 receiver.

Daniels comes in from Liberty, where he was a 1,000-yard receiver in 2023. He’ll join a room that needs to replace both leading receivers from this season as [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] are off to the draft.

Daniels could immediately become the top target for new starting quarterback [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] in 2024.

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Transfer Breakdown: Here’s what LSU’s getting with Liberty WR CJ Daniels

Here’s what you need to know about LSU’s newest wide receiver transfer CJ Daniels.

LSU added to its wide receiver room over the weekend, landing a commitment from Liberty wide receiver transfer [autotag]CJ Daniels.[/autotag]

Daniels was one of the most productive receivers in the country last year. A key part of Liberty’s highly efficient offense, he racked up over 1,000 yards to go along with 10 touchdowns coming off an injury-plagued 2023 season.

LSU’s receivers have a high standard to meet in 2024 after the show [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] put on in 2023, but the addition of Daniels should help with that as both those players are moving on.

Here are five things you should know about Daniels.

NEW: Liberty WR transfer CJ Daniels commits to LSU

CJ Daniels is now officially committed to playing for the LSU Tigers next season.

There were a lot of reports on Saturday that [autotag]CJ Daniels[/autotag] would be transferring from Liberty to LSU. Nothing official has been released until now.

On Sunday, Daniels officially committed to playing for the LSU Tigers next season.

Daniels is a great pickup for [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] and the LSU offense. He was the leading receiver for the Flames last season and played in 14 games while making 55 receptions for 1,067 yards and 10 touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound wide receiver from Lilburn, Georgia, was a junior, so he will have one year of eligibility remaining.

Daniels joins a wide receiver room with [autotag]Aaron Anderson[/autotag], [autotag]Kyren Lacy[/autotag], [autotag]Shelton Sampson[/autotag], [autotag]Kyle Parker[/autotag] and [autotag]Chris Hilton Jr.[/autotag] There should be a lot of opportunities for him to make a big impact for the Tigers next fall.

The only question remaining is, who will the offensive coordinator be? When [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] names the new offensive coordinator, we will know a lot more about the type of offense LSU will run.

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Report: LSU lands Liberty receiver transfer CJ Daniels

CJ Daniels, who had a 1,000-yard season with the Flames in 2023, is expected to commit to LSU according to 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz.

After what seems to have been a successful visit to Baton Rouge, LSU is expected to land Liberty receiver transfer [autotag]CJ Daniels[/autotag]. The news was first reported by Matt Zenitz of 247Sports.

A native of Lilburn, Georgia, Daniels is coming off a 1,000-yard campaign in 2023 after injuries shortened his 2022 season. He’s one of the top receivers available in the portal, and he’ll provide a major boost to a room that’s set to lose both [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] to the NFL draft.

Daniels had 55 catches for 1,067 yards and 10 touchdowns this season, and in four years in Lynchburg, he has 106 catches for 1,954 yards and 21 receiving touchdowns.

If Daniels ultimately commits, the Tigers will have landed two receivers so far in the portal after Mississippi State’s [autotag]Zavion Thomas[/autotag] committed earlier in the cycle.

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