Friday, April 19
Lynchburg, Va.
6:00 PM ET
Liberty University
8
vs
7
New Mexico State
Late Heroics Send Liberty to 10-Inning, 8-7 Win Over New Mexico State
4/19/2024 10:59:00 PM | Softball
LYNCHBURG, Va. - Liberty junior Rachel Roupe hit two-out, game-tying homers in both the seventh and ninth innings before the Lady Flames earned an 8-7 win over New Mexico State with a 10th-inning tally, Friday at Kamphuis Field at Liberty Softball Stadium.
With the win, Liberty improves to 27-17 and maintains first place in Conference USA standings at 16-3 in conference games. The Aggies fall to 25-18, 10-6 in CUSA play. NM State entered the series in a tie with WKU for second in league standings, but today's Aggie loss and Hilltopper win have put WKU one game ahead of New Mexico State.
Scoring Summary
NM State – 1st INNING – Taylor homers to right center, 1-0
Liberty – 4th INNING – Roupe doubles to right center, Deter scores, 1-1
Liberty – 5th INNING – Barrett reaches on fielder's choice, Heidorn and Madrey advance, Wilson scores, 2-1
Liberty – 5th INNING – Deter reaches on fielder's choice, Heidorn advances, Madrey scores, 3-1
Liberty – 5th INNING – Kersten doubles, Tuck advances, Heidorn scores, 4-1
NM State – 6th INNING – Kayla Lunar singles to right, Elam advances, Spearman scores, 4-2
NM State – 7th INNING – Taylor triples, Bejarano scores, 4-3
NM State – 7th INNING – Patmon homers to left, Taylor scores, 5-4
Liberty – 7th INNING – Roupe homers to left center, 5-5
NM State – 9th INNING – Taylor advances on wild pitch, Carreon scores on wild pitch, 6-5
NM State – 9th INNING – Patmon singles up the middle, Taylor scores, 7-5
Liberty – 9th INNING – Roupe homers to right center, Deter scores, 7-7
Liberty – 10th INNING – Wilson scores on passed ball, 8-7
Turning Point
Beyond the Box Score
The Lady Flames and Aggies continue this weekend's series tomorrow at 2 p.m. There will be a pregame senior day ceremony as Liberty honors Raigan Barrett, Megan Fortner, Sierra Kersten and Mary Claire Wilson.
With the win, Liberty improves to 27-17 and maintains first place in Conference USA standings at 16-3 in conference games. The Aggies fall to 25-18, 10-6 in CUSA play. NM State entered the series in a tie with WKU for second in league standings, but today's Aggie loss and Hilltopper win have put WKU one game ahead of New Mexico State.
Scoring Summary
NM State – 1st INNING – Taylor homers to right center, 1-0
Liberty – 4th INNING – Roupe doubles to right center, Deter scores, 1-1
Liberty – 5th INNING – Barrett reaches on fielder's choice, Heidorn and Madrey advance, Wilson scores, 2-1
Liberty – 5th INNING – Deter reaches on fielder's choice, Heidorn advances, Madrey scores, 3-1
Liberty – 5th INNING – Kersten doubles, Tuck advances, Heidorn scores, 4-1
NM State – 6th INNING – Kayla Lunar singles to right, Elam advances, Spearman scores, 4-2
NM State – 7th INNING – Taylor triples, Bejarano scores, 4-3
NM State – 7th INNING – Patmon homers to left, Taylor scores, 5-4
Liberty – 7th INNING – Roupe homers to left center, 5-5
NM State – 9th INNING – Taylor advances on wild pitch, Carreon scores on wild pitch, 6-5
NM State – 9th INNING – Patmon singles up the middle, Taylor scores, 7-5
Liberty – 9th INNING – Roupe homers to right center, Deter scores, 7-7
Liberty – 10th INNING – Wilson scores on passed ball, 8-7
Turning Point
- New Mexico State trailed 4-2 entering the seventh inning. Jillian Taylor narrowed the gap to 4-3 with an RBI triple before Dezianna Patmon's two-out, two-run homer put the visitors ahead 5-4.
- Aggie reliever Emily Dix got two quick outs in the bottom of the seventh, but Roupe launched a game-tying homer on an 0-1 pitch.
- The Aggies scored twice in the top of the ninth, but Roupe struck again in the home half. Deter doubled with one out. After a flyout, Roupe tied the game with a two-run homer.
- The Lady Flames manufactured the game-winning run in the 10th. Mary Claire Wilson led off the bottom of the 10th with a double. She went to third on a sacrifice bunt, and later scored on a passed ball for the walk-off win.
- New Mexico State outhit Liberty 10-8 for the game. The Lady Flames committed two errors, while both teams left eight runners on base.
- Kaylan Yoder (10-7) earned the win, pitching three total innings while allowing one run on one hit, striking out six. She was lifted after two innings, but later came in to get three outs in the 10th. Elena Escobar yielded five runs on seven hits, walking two and fanning four in six innings. Paige Bachman pitch one inning, giving up one run on two hits with one strikeout.
- Emily Dix (7-10) drew the loss, yielding four runs (three earned) on five hits, walking four and striking out two in 4 1/3 innings. Jaileen Mancha allowed four runs on three hits, with three walks and one strikeout in 5 1/3 innings.
- Rachel Roupe batted 3-for-3 with a double, two homers, four RBI and two runs scored. Mary Claire Wilson went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Hailey Deter went 1-for-4 with a double, one RBI and two runs scored.
- Jillian Taylor went 3-for-4 with a triple, home run, two RBI and three runs scored. Dezianna Patmon batted 2-for-4 with a homer, three RBI and one run.
Beyond the Box Score
- Liberty leads the all-time series over NM State 3-1, as the Lady Flames have won the last three meetings.
- The Lady Flames are now 2-1 in extra-inning games and 8-4 in one-run games this season. All-time at Liberty Softball Stadium, Liberty holds a 10-4 record in extra-inning contests.
- Liberty has won 16 or more conference games each of the last eight full seasons, beginning in 2016.
- Tonight was Liberty's second walk-off win of the season, with the other coming via Roupe's two-run homer in the seventh in the season opener against St. John's.
- This was the first time in Liberty's NCAA Division I era in which the Lady Flames have won on a walk-off passed ball.
- Barrett made her first start as leadoff batter this season, the fourth different leadoff hitter for the Lady Flames this year. The last time Liberty had four or more different batters serve as leadoff was 2017 (Amber Bishop, Autumn Bishop, Jasmeen Click, Sarah Robertson, Tori Zavodny).
- Roupe posted her seventh three-hit game of the season. She has registered the most three-hit games by a Lady Flame since Amber Bishop's nine in 2018.
- Roupe recorded her third two-homer game of the season and she is now tied with Kelly Strickland (2009-12) for second most career multiple-homer games in program history with six.
- Roupe is now in sole possession of ninth place all-time at Liberty with 71 career extra-base hits and is ranked 10th with 124 career RBI.
- Roupe is the second Lady Flame in program history to homer twice when both of her homers came in the seventh inning and later. Caroline Hudson hit a game-tying three-run homer in the seventh inning and a game-winning two-run home run on April 28, 2021 against Virginia Tech.
- Roupe is the eighth player in program history with back-to-back 10-homer seasons. Teammate Megan Fortner became the seventh on Sunday.
- Wilson is now tied with former teammate Kara Canetto (2019-22) for 14th place in program history with 112 career runs scored.
- Yoder is 6-1 with a 0.32 ERA in Conference USA series openers.
- A three hours and 15 minutes, tonight's game was Liberty's longest since a 10-inning 4-3 setback to James Madison in the first game of the 2022 NCAA Knoxville Regional. That game lasted 3:35.
The Lady Flames and Aggies continue this weekend's series tomorrow at 2 p.m. There will be a pregame senior day ceremony as Liberty honors Raigan Barrett, Megan Fortner, Sierra Kersten and Mary Claire Wilson.
Players Mentioned
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