No. 1 Seed Liberty Flames to Open CUSA Softball Championship Play Thursday
5/7/2024 3:45:00 PM | Softball
Liberty (32-22, 19-5 Conference USA) serves as the No. 1 seed for the 2024 CUSA Softball Championship, held Wednesday through Saturday at NM State Softball Complex in Las Cruces, N.M. The Lady Flames will open play in the quarterfinal round on Thursday at 2 p.m. ET (noon local). The host team, No. 4 seed New Mexico State, takes on No. 5 seed Jacksonville State on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, with Liberty facing the winner of Wednesday's game.
Coverage
Coverage
- TV: ESPN+ | Championship on CBS Sports Network
- Radio: LFSN Radio
- Live Stats: StatBroadcast
- Championship Central
- Tickets
- Liberty is the first team since WKU in 2015 to win the CUSA softball regular-season championship in its first year in the league. Western Kentucky also won the conference tournament title that year.
- The Lady Flames posted their signature win of the season to date in their regular-season finale. After falling in each of its first two games at No. 10 LSU, Liberty used a gritty pitching performance by Elena Escobar, an RBI double from Savannah Jessee and a two-run homer by Rachel Roupe to down the 10th-ranked Tigers 3-1 on Sunday in Baton Rouge.
- Liberty has posted four wins over Top 25 teams this year, tying a program record for Top 25 wins set last year. Each of Liberty's final four regular-season contests this season were against nationally-ranked teams (Wednesday vs. No. 16 Virginia Tech, Friday through Sunday at No. 10 LSU).
- Liberty will be looking to win a conference tournament title in its third different conference. The Lady Flames won three Big South titles (2002, 2011, 2018) and back-to-back Atlantic Sun Championships (2021-22). Additionally, Liberty was Big South runner-up in 1998, 2000, 2008, 2009 and 2017.
- The Lady Flames have made three straight NCAA Regional appearances. Last year, Liberty received its first-ever at-large bid, competing in the NCAA Los Angeles Regional. Liberty eliminated No. 2 UCLA before defeating Grand Canyon to make its third NCAA Regional final appearance (also 2018, 2021).
- In the last 10 games, Rachel Roupe has batted .440 with two doubles, five homers, 10 RBI and 10 runs scored. During that same span, Savannah Jessee (.391) has posted three doubles, one homer and three RBI, while Brynn McManus (.370) has recorded two homers and six RBI.
- For the season, Rachel Roupe (.368) leads the CUSA in doubles (17), on base percentage (.492) and OPS (1.292) and is tied for the lead in homers (16). Raigan Barrett bats .282, while KK Madrey (.269) is tied for third in the CUSA with 17 steals. Mary Claire Wilson (.270) has scored 34 runs. Hailey Deter (.272) is second on the team with nine doubles. Megan Fortner (.247) is second on the team with 11 home runs and 29 RBI. Sierra Kersten (.225) is third on the team in RBI (28).
- • Elena Escobar (11-4, 2.25) and Kaylan Yoder (10-9, 2.69) rank first and second, respectively, in the CUSA in ERA. Yoder leads the league with a .208 opponents batting average and is second with 121 strikeouts. Katie Love (7-4, 3.64) has tossed three shutouts this season, including a no-hitter versus Jax State on March 16 and a six-hitter at Virginia on April 9.
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/ SoftballLiberty Softball Show with Dot Richardson, Alexia Carrasquillo and Camden Anders.
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Lady Flames Softball Podcast: CUSA Tournament Preview + Dot Richardson and Maci Strickland Join!
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Monday, May 04
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Wednesday, April 29