Just 16 teams remain in the NCAA Softball Tournament after a wild opening weekend of regional play. There were a handful of upsets, but none more notable than what happened down in College Station, Texas, where the Texas A&M Aggies — the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament — were ousted by the Liberty Flames.
Liberty beat Texas A&M 8-5 on Saturday, then fell to the Aggies 14-11 in extra innings on Sunday to force a winner-take-all Game Seven of the College Station Regional. The series-clinching upset was a 6-5 result in the Flames’ favor and it was powered by the bat of Rachel Roupe who had two home runs and four RBI. It was the fourth multi-homer game of the season for the senior outfielder from Sharpsburg, Maryland, who now has 23 bombs this year.
“I’m just trying to process everything,” Roupe, somewhat speechless, told ESPN after the game. “ … Weight lifted off your shoulder. We were battling all day long. It took us, I don’t know, many hours? Eight hours? Whatever we needed to do to get it done, we did it.”
Here’s the final out of the game, with Liberty’s Kaylan Yoder striking out Kramer Eschete of the Aggies:
Liberty’s win over Texas A&M was historic on several levels. It marked the first times since 2005 — when national seeding in the tournament began — that the No. 1 overall seed didn’t advance out of the first weekend. It’s also the first time ever that the Flames are going to the Super Regional round. With the stunning loss, Texas A&M is still searching for its first World Series appearance since 2017.
The Flames have been a solid team all year and now sport an overall record of 50-13 — a new program record for wins. Liberty also ranks seventh nationally in team ERA with a 2.28 mark.
Liberty will head to Eugene, Oregon, this weekend to face the 16th-seeded Oregon Ducks. There seemed to be a chance for a bit that Liberty could actually host a Super Regional as Stanford also pushed Oregon to a winner-take-all game, but the Ducks prevailed in walk-off fashion, getting a three-run dinger from Dezianna Patmon to take a 10-7 victory on Sunday night.
Elsewhere in the opening weekend of the tournament, No. 10 LSU was eliminated on Saturday night after losing twice to Southeastern Louisiana, which paved the way for a Jordy Bahl-driven Nebraska team to emerge from the Baton Rouge regional. The Huskers will face No. 7 Tennessee in the Supers.
In Durham, North Carolina, Georgia defeated Duke in a winner-take-all game on Sunday night, ending the Blue Devils’ streak of three consecutive Super Regional appearances. The Bulldogs will meet rival Florida in the Supers.
Additionally, Ole Miss won the regional hosted by No. 13 Arizona, setting up a Super Regional matchup with Arkansas.
Super Regional play begins Thursday night with a pair of games. Texas Tech faces Florida State in Tallahassee at 7 p.m. ET, and then Clemson takes on Texas in Austin at 9 p.m. ET.
