No. 3 Liberty tied a Big South Tournament record with 20 runs in defeating No. 6 High Point, 20-10, in Game 6 of the 2009 Royal Purple Big South Conference Baseball Championship, May 21 at historic McCormick Field in Asheville, N.C.  With the victory, Liberty improves to 33-19 and advances to play the winner of No. 1 Coastal Carolina-No. 6 High Point Friday night at 7:00pm.  The Panthers fall to 21-31 and move to the loser's bracket, where they will face No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina in an elimination game Friday morning at 11:00am.

The 30 combined runs broke the tournament record of 27, which was first set in 1997 (Liberty 18, UNC Greensboro 9) and 2006 (UNC Asheville 16, Liberty 11).

High Point jumped out to an early posting three runs in the first inning.  Jeff Cowan got it started with an infield hit and moved up to second after Alfie Wheeler was hit on his foot by a pitch.  Bill Manion upped his hitting streak to 23-games with an RBI single down the leftfield line plating Cowan.  After a foul out and a strikeout, Kyle Mahoney knocked in Wheeler and Manion.

Liberty quickly responded and seized control of the contest scoring the next 18 runs in the ballgame.  Two singles got it going in the first followed up by a one-out single by Jeff Jefferson bringing in Matt Williams.  A fielding error loaded the bases allowing Cody Brown, Kizuku Scott and P.J. Jimenez all to have RBI hits giving the Flames a 6-3 lead after one.  In the second, Errol Hollinger poked a two-out double down the rightfield line scoring Curran Redal before Brown knocked a two-run homerun over the leftfield wall for a 9-3 LU lead.  Scott knocked in his second and third runs of the game with a two-run double in the left-centerfield gap.

Liberty added three runs in the third and four more runs in the fourth to take a comfortable 18-3 lead after four innings. 

High Point finally got back on the board in the fifth inning scoring four runs.  Mahoney singled to center, Pablo Rosario walked and Eric Marion singled to right to load the bases.  Cowan then hit a double off the top of the wall clearing the bases and trimming Liberty's lead to 18-6.  Wheeler followed that up by singling in home Cowan to make it 18-7.

The Flames crossed the plate for the 19th time in the bottom of the fifth, then High Point reached double figures in runs in the seventh inning, when Cowan belted a three-run home run to left field to make the score 19-10 in favor of Liberty.

Liberty tied the tournament runs scored record in the bottom of the eighth, when pinch runner Joseph Feeley crossed the plate on Scott's ground out to short for the final margin.  The Flames join Coastal Carolina (1986, 2008) and Elon (2001) as the only teams to score 20 runs in a Big South tournament game.

Brown finished 4-for-5 with six RBI for Liberty, who totaled 20 hits on the night.  Hollinger also had four hits and three RBI, while Jimenez drove in four runners.  For High Point, Cowan was 3-for-6 with six RBI and Rosario was 3-for-4 at the plate, as the Panthers tallied 16 base hits.  Steven Evans was credited with the win for Liberty to improve to 7-2.  RJ Chlebnikow was tagged with the loss and falls to 3-6.

Liberty Head Coach Jim Toman
"I am really happy with the way our team played tonight.  We got a strong effort throughout the entire lineup, and continue to grind out the victories."

High Point Head Coach Craig Cozart
"Liberty has scored a bunch of runs against us all season in four games.  We had no answer for them on the mound tonight.  Offensively, we posted a bunch of runs which bodes well for us tomorrow because we are going to need to score a lot of runs.  We just need to find someone to get us outs tomorrow."