Louisiana Tech Visits Liberty in 1st-Place Battle
3/27/2024 1:05:00 PM | Softball
Liberty (17-14, 7-2 Conference USA) hosts Louisiana Tech (23-6, 7-2), Thursday through Saturday in a battle of teams tied atop conference standings.
Series Coverage
Series Coverage
- Louisiana Tech at Liberty (Kamphuis Field at Liberty Softball Stadium)
- First pitch: Thursday at 6 p.m./Friday at 4 p.m./Saturday at Noon
- TV:Â ESPN+
- Live Stats
- Louisiana Tech went 2-1 in a home series against Western Kentucky on the weekend before earning a run-rule victory over Grambling, Tuesday. The Lady Flames took two out of three at Sam Houston before falling to Virginia on Tuesday at home.
- Louisiana Tech (40) and Liberty (51) have the top two RPI's in Conference USA as of Wednesday. In conference play, Liberty leads all teams with a 2.40 team ERA, while Louisiana Tech is second at 2.71. Overall, the Bulldogs rank 18th nationally with a 1.95 ERA.
- Liberty will face the pitchers with the second (Allie Floyd - 1.51) and third (Brook Melnychuk - 2.01) best ERA's in Conference USA, while also facing reigning CUSA Player of the Week, Claire Raley.
- Liberty is 9-2 at home this season. The Lady Flames' lone home losses are to ACC programs Duke and Virginia. Liberty pitching has a 1.15 ERA and .134 opponents' batting average at home. Liberty has tossed four shutouts at Liberty Softball Stadium, compared to one shutout away from Lynchburg.
- Liberty's Elena Escobar, pitching for the first time since March 10, started against Virginia on Tuesday. She allowed two earned runs on three hits, striking out six in five innings in a 3-1 setback.
- Freshman Kaylan Yoder tossed her second shutout of the season, last Friday at Sam Houston. Hailey Deter then homered and drove in a career-high four runs in a 7-6 comeback win on Saturday. Megan Fortner hit a two-out, three-run homer in the seventh on Sunday to put Liberty ahead 5-4.
- For the season, Rachel Roupe (.362) is second in the CUSA in OPS (1.216), home runs (9) and runs scored (25). Mary Claire Wilson (.290) has scored 22 runs, while Hailey Deter (.279) is second on the team with seven doubles. Sierra Kersten (.268) is tied for the team lead with 20 RBI. Megan Fortner has recorded seven homers and 19 RBI. KK Madrey is ranked third in CUSA in stolen bases (11).
- Kaylan Yoder (6-5, 2.79 ERA) has pitched shutouts in each of Liberty's last two CUSA series openers. Yoder is tied for second in CUSA with 64 strikeouts. Katie Love (4-3, 4.39) pitched a no-hitter against Jacksonville State on March 16 and ranks fourth in CUSA in opponents' batting average (.223). Elena Escobar (4-1, 2.55 ERA) is ranked sixth in the conference in ERA. Louisiana transfer Tyler Oubre holds a 3.68 ERA.
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Friday, January 23
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Thursday, December 11
Coach Richardson, Elena Escobar & Rachel Roupe Talk About The Game Against Oregon
Sunday, May 25