A college baseball team was forced to forfeit one of its games on Saturday after making a big mistake.
Liberty University and Jacksonville State played a three-game series over the weekend. Liberty won Friday’s opener 9-8. Then on Saturday, the teams played a doubleheader with Jacksonville State winning the first game 9-0 via forfeit and the second game 6-1.
Prior to the start of the series, the teams had to submit their 27-player roster which would feature players who were eligible to participate in the series. Liberty’s 27-player roster omitted Ben Blair despite him being scheduled to start at pitcher in Game 2 of the series on Saturday.
Jacksonville State’s manager took note of that situation and waited for Blair to throw one pitch in the game before alerting the umpiring crew. The Jacksonville State coach didn’t know what would transpire from there. He figured Blair would either be removed from the game or there would be a forfeit. Conference USA has a rule stating that a team has to forfeit if it uses an ineligible player in a game, which is what Liberty had done.
The Flames had to forfeit as a result and lost 9-0.
The teams played later in the day for the finale, and Jacksonville State was able to use both its scheduled Game 2 and Game 3 starters to pitch. They combined on a two-hitter.
Jacksonville State’s X account boasted about the Game 2 win and caught some flak in the replies.
GAMECOCKS WIN!!!
— Jax State Baseball (@JaxStateBB) March 29, 2025
Due to Liberty using an ineligible player, Jax State wins by forfeit…Game 2 will start at 3 p.m.
Fans responded by saying the method of victory was “bush league.”
Super Unclassy by the Jax state staff to wait until after the first pitch. That’s not sportsmanship.
— Cameron Taylor (@Cameron9408) March 29, 2025
Extremely disappointing.
On the other hand, some said it was the Liberty coach’s fault for messing up on his roster.
Perhaps the LU head coach will pay more attention to filling out his series roster card in the future since it was his error…
— Thomas Ballenger (@t_ballenger) March 29, 2025
Winning via forfeit on something like that may seem unsportsmanlike. But at the same time, Liberty could have had an advantage had they used the other 27 players in the series and then got away with using Blair as their 28th player while Jacksonville State was limited to 27 for the series.
Liberty described the mistake as a “clerical error.”
As has been said on the broadcast, starter Ben Blair was left off the 27-man this weekend, Liberty baseball’s SID tells me. Once he threw a pitch the Flames were forced to forfeit.
— Bryson Gordon (@BrysonGordon) March 29, 2025
“A clerical error. Pure and simple.” https://t.co/r99ALwoSWG
