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New York Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How Liberty conquered No. 1 Texas A&M to reach first-ever super regionals: ‘A true David and Goliath thing'
If you're going to slay a giant, you're going to need a good scouting report. Down 3-1 with two outs and a man on second, Savannah Jessee had one. She knew what was coming. By the third and final game between Liberty and Texas A&M on Sunday in the NCAA softball tournament regional round, Jessee said she had learned pitcher Emiley Kennedy's tendencies. Jessee had a hunch Kennedy would try to even the count on her next pitch, so she readied her swing. 'I knew that pitch was going to be right where I wanted it to be,' Jessee said in a news conference Tuesday. 'I saw it well. I was perfectly on time and I was able to stay through it and put it over.' Savannah Jessee ties it up‼️ 📺- @ESPNPlus #NoLimitsOnUs | @LibertySB — Conference USA (@ConferenceUSA) May 19, 2025 Jessee hammered a home run over left field, bringing in two runs and tying the score at 3. Three batters later, with runners on first and third and Grace Sparks on the mound after a Texas A&M pitching change, Rachel Roupe enacted the same strategy as Jessee. The Conference USA Softball Player of the Year took the first pitch to get her timing down, she said, before seeing the next pitch right where she wanted. Advertisement She swung and watched as the ball hit the scoreboard and ricocheted back onto the field. Roupe's blast gave Liberty a 6-3 pad. 'I was just trying to get the ball in play,' Roupe said in Tuesday's news conference. 'That's when you hit your home runs, when you're not trying.' RACHEL ROUPE DOES IT AGAIN 💣💣💣 📺- @ESPNPlus #NoLimitsOnUs | @LibertySB — Conference USA (@ConferenceUSA) May 19, 2025 Roupe's hit proved the victorious one. The Flames gave up two runs in the bottom of the sixth and none in the seventh for the 6-5 victory. Their takedown of the Aggies was the first time in tournament history that the No. 1 seed did not advance out of the regional round. It also marked Liberty's first-ever run to the super regionals. 'It was a true David and Goliath thing,' Jessee said. David and Goliath is a biblical tale of a young shepherd boy David, who challenges and defeats a giant, Goliath, with only a sling and stones. With God's help, the story says, David struck the giant in the forehead, killing him. Many players on Liberty, an evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Va., are strong in their religious beliefs. Coach Dot Richardson said Tuesday that much of the game plan is contingent on God's plan — like drawing Goliath-like Texas A&M in the first place. The team's belief that everything happens according to God's will allows them to play freely and unbothered, she said. 'I am not surprised where we are because they just play with so much freedom,' Richardson said. 'That's what happens when you see great athletes play with freedom, great things happen.' Leading 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh of Game 7, Liberty's Kaylan Yoder took that liberation with her to the mound. She needed three outs to send her team to the supers. She got them in five batters. Advertisement 'It's all God, man,' she said May 20 on Delmarva Sports Network. 'That's the only thing I can give credit to because I went out and I never felt so much peace in a big moment.' All thanks to her own advice. 'The last game, Yoder told me, 'When you're struggling and there's a big moment, sometimes I either think about nothing or I think about the Lord,'' Jessee said. 'That's what she told me before I went up and hit my home run, and I told her the same thing when she went out to pitch.' But Liberty's conquest of the giant didn't happen overnight. It took years for the program to recruit talent and build the depth required to beat an SEC powerhouse in the postseason. Before 2025, Liberty made — and lost — four regional finals. Last year, No. 11 Georgia beat Liberty 3-2 in the regional final on a walk-off win. In 2023, San Diego State rallied from an early 2-0 hole to best the Flames in the final, and James Madison posted a five-run fifth inning to send Liberty home in the finals the year before that. South Carolina beat Liberty both times in the finals to advance out of its 2018 regionals. This year, the Flames were CUSA regular-season and tournament champions for the second year in a row. Led by star hitters Roupe, Jessee, KK Madrey, Paige Doerr and Savannah Woodard, they made their eighth playoff appearance and are one of two teams (Miami Ohio) outside the Power 4 conferences to appear in each of the last five regionals. The Flames knew 2025 should've been a season of reclaiming a regionals victory instead of continuing to seek their first one. After a 10-5 victory over Marist on May 16, Liberty matched up against Texas A&M for the first time in the tournament the following day. There, the Flames stunned the Aggies 8-5. That's when Jessee realized Liberty was in the driver's seat and this time — needing only one more win as opposed to Texas A&M's two — it wouldn't relinquish control of the wheel. Advertisement 'I just knew when we won that game that we were gonna win the whole thing,' Jessee said of the regional round. Liberty plays No. 14 Oregon in the super regional round starting Friday at 10 p.m. ET in Eugene. The schools have met in other sports this academic year: Oregon football thumped Liberty 45-6 in the 2024 Fiesta Bowl and Oregon men's basketball blew out Liberty 81-52 in the 2025 NCAA Tournament first round. But Roupe is looking forward to the chance to even the scales. 'I'm so excited for a women's team to get the job done,' she said. (Top photo of Liberty players celebrating in a game this spring: Michael Wyke / AP Photo)
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Women's College World Series: Liberty softball stuns No. 1 Texas A&M for historic upset
Liberty softball made history on Sunday night in College Station. The Flames knocked off Texas A&M 6-5 in their regional matchup on Sunday, which sent them into the Super Regionals for the first time in program history. That also left the Aggies, who were the top seed in the region and the betting favorite to win the Women's College World Series, on the wrong side of a historic upset. They are now the first No. 1 seed in history to ever fail to make it out of the regionals round since the current format started two decades ago. The Aggies held a 3-1 lead entering the sixth inning of the winner-take-all game on Sunday afternoon, though that's when the Flames erupted. Savannah Jessee hit a two-run homer to left field to tie the game up early in the inning, and then Rachel Roupe followed suit with a three-run shot of her own. That suddenly put LIberty up 6-3. JESSER SUE TIES IT UP! — Liberty Softball (@LibertySB) May 19, 2025 ROUPE DOES IT AGAIN 👏 — Liberty Softball (@LibertySB) May 19, 2025 While the Aggies added two runs at the bottom of the inning, Liberty held on and took the one-run win after closing out the final inning. YODER GETS IT DONE!!!!!!!! — Liberty Softball (@LibertySB) May 19, 2025 Texas A&M had to beat Liberty twice on Sunday to make it out of the regional, as it had already fallen to the Flames on Saturday. That sent the Aggies to the elimination bracket, where they beat Marist to set up Sunday's pair of games. The Aggies then took the first game 14-11 in extra innings. Liberty will now take on either Stanford or Oregon next in the Super Regionals. If they win there, the Flames will earn a trip to the Women's College World Series — which starts on May 29 in Oklahoma City.
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Roupe hits 2 HRs to help Liberty eliminate No. 1 Texas A&M with 6-5 win, advance to super regionals
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Rachel Roupe hit two home runs for Liberty, Savannah Jessee hit a two-run shot and the Flames beat No. 1 Texas A&M 6-5 on Sunday night to win the Bryan-College Station Regional and eliminate the top-seeded Aggies. Liberty (50-13) will play host to the winner between No. 13 seed Arizona and Mississippi in the super regionals next weekend.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Roupe hits 2 HRs to help Liberty eliminate No. 1 Texas A&M with 6-5 win, advance to super regionals
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Rachel Roupe hit two home runs for Liberty, Savannah Jessee hit a two-run shot and the Flames beat No. 1 Texas A&M 6-5 on Sunday night to win the Bryan-College Station Regional and eliminate the top-seeded Aggies. Liberty (50-13) will play host to the winner between No. 13 seed Arizona and Mississippi in the super regionals next weekend. Advertisement KK Madrey drew a lead-off walk in the sixth, Paige Doeer and Rachel Crane struck out swinging before Jessee homered to make it 3-3. JaMaya Byrum walked on four consecutive pitches, Savannah Woodard followed with a single and Roupe hit a shot off the scoreboard in left field to give the Flames a 6-3 lead. Kaylan Yoder replaced starter Elena Escobar (25-3) with one out and runners on first and second. Kennedy Powell flied out and Koko Wooley's infield single scored Kramer Eschete to cut Texas A&M's deficit to 6-5 before Mya Perez flied out to end the inning. Yoder struck out Eschete to end the game and earn her first save of the season. Amari Harper led off the second with a single a KK Dement followed with a home run that gave the Aggies (48-10) a 2-0 lead. Advertisement Koko Wooley scored on a two-out single by Harper in the third. Kennedy Powell had a two-run single in the eighth inning as the Aggies forced a second game with a wild 14-11 win earlier Sunday. With the help of a Roupe grand slam in the second inning, the Flames took a 6-0 lead. Texas A&M scored the next 10 runs, including home runs by KK Dement, Mya Perez and Mac Barbara. The Aggies were up 11-7 going into the bottom of the seventh but Liberty tied it with four runs before Sydney Lessentine got the final out on a 3-2 pitch. The Aggies pounded out 18 hits and Liberty, which won the first matchup 8-5 on Saturday had six errors, the last opening the door in the top of the eighth. ___ AP college sports:
Associated Press
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Roupe hits 2 HRs to help Liberty eliminate No. 1 Texas A&M with 6-5 win, advance to super regionals
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Rachel Roupe hit two home runs for Liberty, Savannah Jessee hit a two-run shot and the Flames beat No. 1 Texas A&M 6-5 on Sunday night to win the Bryan-College Station Regional and eliminate the top-seeded Aggies. Liberty (50-13) will play host to the winner between No. 13 seed Arizona and Mississippi in the super regionals next weekend. KK Madrey drew a lead-off walk in the sixth, Paige Doeer and Rachel Crane struck out swinging before Jessee homered to make it 3-3. JaMaya Byrum walked on four consecutive pitches, Savannah Woodard followed with a single and Roupe hit a shot off the scoreboard in left field to give the Flames a 6-3 lead. Kaylan Yoder replaced starter Elena Escobar (25-3) with one out and runners on first and second. Kennedy Powell flied out and Koko Wooley's infield single scored Kramer Eschete to cut Texas A&M's deficit to 6-5 before Mya Perez flied out to end the inning. Yoder struck out Eschete to end the game and earn her first save of the season. Amari Harper led off the second with a single a KK Dement followed with a home run that gave the Aggies (48-10) a 2-0 lead. Koko Wooley scored on a two-out single by Harper in the third. Kennedy Powell had a two-run single in the eighth inning as the Aggies forced a second game with a wild 14-11 win earlier Sunday. With the help of a Roupe grand slam in the second inning, the Flames took a 6-0 lead. Texas A&M scored the next 10 runs, including home runs by KK Dement, Mya Perez and Mac Barbara. The Aggies were up 11-7 going into the bottom of the seventh but Liberty tied it with four runs before Sydney Lessentine got the final out on a 3-2 pitch. The Aggies pounded out 18 hits and Liberty, which won the first matchup 8-5 on Saturday had six errors, the last opening the door in the top of the eighth. ___ AP college sports:
