CONWAY – Liberty overcame a 3-0 deficit early to beat Coastal Carolina 7-5 in Game 1 of a three-game series Friday.
The Chanticleers and Flames entered the game in a three-way tie for first in the Big South with Radford. The Flames and Highlanders are now tied atop the standings at 15-4. Coastal is a game back at 14-5.
Coastal jumped out to a 3-0 lead through three innings on Flames starter Jared Lyons, who entered the game with an conference-leading 1.40. ERA. But Lyons (8-1) surrendered just one more run after that and finished with 11 strikeouts in eight innings.
Liberty put away a back-and-forth contest with two runs in the seventh inning to go up 6-4. Andrew Yacyk went 2-for-4 with two RBI to lead the Flames at the plate. Dalton Britt and Alex Close each had two hits. Close hit a solo blast in the fourth that cut Coastal’s lead to 3-1. The Flames added three more in the fifth for a 4-3 lead.
Coastal tied the game 4-4 on a Michael Paez home run in the bottom of the fourth, but never regained the lead. Paez went 3-for-4. G.K. Young went 4-for-5 with two RBI. The rest of the Chanticleers went a combined 2-for-27.
Game 2 of the series is at 11 a.m. Saturday.
