Liberty University baseball will have a hard time living down what happened to their roster on Saturday.
During a weekend that Liberty was slated to play Jacksonville State in a three-game series, the team went 1-3, including a loss that they were forced to forfeit due to not including a starting pitcher on the roster.
Ahead of the series that included one game on Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday, teams were required to submit their 27-player roster that would feature players who would participate in the games.
The Flames’ roster was without Ben Blair, who was scheduled to start in Game 2, and Jacksonville State’s manager took notice.
He waited for Blair to step onto the mound and throw his first pitch in the game before alerting the umpires in Saturday’s first game, figuring the sophomore hurler would be removed from the game or there would be a forfeit.
It ended up being the former, as Conference USA has a rule that states a team has to forfeit if it utilizes an ineligible player in a game, and Liberty waved the white flag and lost 9-0.
Jacksonville State’s X account boasted over the win and caught some flak from other users on the platform.
“Super Unclassy by the Jax state staff to wait until after the first pitch. That’s not sportsmanship. Extremely disappointing,” one user wrote.
“If I’m a JSU fan I’m really embarrassed by that bush league move,” another wrote.
Some sided with Jacksonville State in that Liberty should not have had an advantage in using a 28th man off the eligible roster. Others blamed the Flames manager outright.
“Perhaps the LU head coach will pay more attention to filling out his series roster card in the future since it was his error…” an X user wrote.
Liberty said the mishap was a “clerical error,” according to Bryson Gordon of Newsadvance.com.
Friday’s opener was won by the Flames 9-8, but after the forfeit on Saturday, they lost the second game to Jacksonville State, 6-1.
They are 19-10 this season and Blair holds an ERA of 2.67.
