Thursday, May 9
Las Cruces, NM
2:00 PM ET/12:00 PM MT
Liberty University
32-23
3
at
11
New Mexico State
30-23
1
2
3
4
5
R
H
E
NM State
2
0
3
3
3
11
13
1
Liberty
0
0
3
0
0
3
6
1
No. 1 Seed Liberty Falls to 4th-Seeded NM State 11-3 in CUSA Championship Opener
5/9/2024 6:15:00 PM | Softball
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The host, fourth-seeded New Mexico State, upset No. 1 seed Liberty 11-3 in five innings on day two at the 2024 CUSA Softball Championship at NM State Softball Complex.
With the win, New Mexico State improves to 30-23 and advances to tomorrow's 2 p.m. Eastern time winner's bracket final. The Aggies will take on the winner of today's game between No. 2 seed Western Kentucky and No. 3 seed Louisiana Tech.
The Lady Flames (32-23) fall into the losers' bracket and will take on No. 6 seed UTEP in an elimination game tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
Scoring Summary
NM State – 1st INNING – Spearman homers to left, Taylor scores, 2-0
NM State – 3rd INNING – Patmon homers to left center, Spearman and Taylor score, 5-0
Liberty – 3rd INNING – Barrett singles to right, advances to second, McManus advances to third, Roupe and Wilson score, 5-2
Liberty – 3rd INNING – Madre singles to left, McManus scores, Barrett advances, 5-3
NM State – 4th INNING – Spearman reaches on squeeze bunt, Taylor advances, Carreon scores, 6-3
NM State – Elam singles to center, Patmon and Spearman advance, Taylor scores, 7-3
NM State – Carley singles to center, Elam and Patmon advance, Spearman scores, 8-3
NM State – Spearman walks, Taylor and Carreon score on wild pitch, 10-3
NM State – Patmon homers to left, 11-3
Turning Point
With the win, New Mexico State improves to 30-23 and advances to tomorrow's 2 p.m. Eastern time winner's bracket final. The Aggies will take on the winner of today's game between No. 2 seed Western Kentucky and No. 3 seed Louisiana Tech.
The Lady Flames (32-23) fall into the losers' bracket and will take on No. 6 seed UTEP in an elimination game tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
Scoring Summary
NM State – 1st INNING – Spearman homers to left, Taylor scores, 2-0
NM State – 3rd INNING – Patmon homers to left center, Spearman and Taylor score, 5-0
Liberty – 3rd INNING – Barrett singles to right, advances to second, McManus advances to third, Roupe and Wilson score, 5-2
Liberty – 3rd INNING – Madre singles to left, McManus scores, Barrett advances, 5-3
NM State – 4th INNING – Spearman reaches on squeeze bunt, Taylor advances, Carreon scores, 6-3
NM State – Elam singles to center, Patmon and Spearman advance, Taylor scores, 7-3
NM State – Carley singles to center, Elam and Patmon advance, Spearman scores, 8-3
NM State – Spearman walks, Taylor and Carreon score on wild pitch, 10-3
NM State – Patmon homers to left, 11-3
Turning Point
- Liberty trailed 5-0 entering the bottom of the third. The Lady Flames battled to within two. Mary Claire Wilson led off with a single before NM State's Emily Dix walked both Rachel Roupe and Brynn McManus. Raigan Barrett drove in a pair with a single before KK Madrey's RBI single narrowed the gap to 5-3. Barrett was picked off third to end the inning.
- With one out in the top of the fourth, Jessica Carreon drew a 12-pitch walk. The Aggies then scored three in the fourth and three in the fifth to post the 11-3 run-rule win.
- New Mexico State outhit Liberty 13-6 for the game. Both teams committed an error.
- Dix (10-10) earned the win, allowing three runs on six hits, walking four and striking out one.
- Elena Escobar (11-5) drew the loss, yielding four runs on five hits while striking out two in two innings pitched. Kaylan Yoder gave up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits, walking three and fanning three in three innings.
- Jillian Taylor went 4-for-4 with four runs scored for NM State, while Dezianna Patmon batted 2-for-4 with two homers, four RBI and two runs scored. Desirae Spearman went 2-for-2 with a homer, three RBI and three runs. Devin Elam (2-for-4) and Riley Carley (3-for-4) both drove in one run.
- For Liberty, KK Madrey went 2-for-3 with one RBI. Raigan Barrett batted 1-for-3 with two RBI, while Mary Claire Wilson, Rachel Roupe and Brynn McManus scored one run each.
- Liberty leads the all-time series against New Mexico State, 4-3. The Lady Flames and Aggies are 2-2 against each other this season, as Liberty posted a 2-1 series win over NM State in Lynchburg, April 19-21.
- Prior to today, Liberty had won its conference tournament opener each of the last seven seasons. The last time Liberty lost its first conference tournament game was at the 2015 Big South Championship.
- Liberty will look to make its way through the losers' bracket. When the Lady Flames captured the 2011 Big South Championship, they opened with a loss to the host team, Winthrop before winning four elimination games over the next two days to claim the tournament title.
- Roupe has reached base safely in each of her last 16 games, the longest reached-base streak by any Lady Flame so far this season.
- Roupe is now tied with Libi Cook (1996-99), J'Nae Jefferson (2007-10) and Caroline Hudson (2020-23) for 12th in program history with 113 career runs scored. Wilson scored her 120th career run, ranking eighth in program history.
- Roupe's 36 walks this season are tied with Ashley Bensinger (2010) for third most in a single season in program history.
- This is the second straight year in which Madrey drove in at least one run in the team's conference tournament opener. Her three-run homer put Liberty ahead for good against No. 3 seed Jacksonville State in last year's opener.
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: DIX (10-10)
L: Escobar, Elena (11-5)
Batting:
HR: SPEARMAN 1 ; PATMON 2
RBI: SPEARMAN 3 ; PATMON 4 ; ELAM 1 ; CARLEY 1
SH: SPEARMAN 1
Base Running:
RUNS: TAYLOR 4 ; SPEARMAN 3 ; PATMON 2 ; CARREON 2
SB: SPEARMAN 1
CS: CARLEY 1
HBP: PATMON 1 ; LUNAR,KA 1
Batting:
RBI: Barrett, Raigan 2 ; Madrey, KK 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wilson, Mary Claire 1 ; Roupe, Rachel 1 ; McManus, Brynn 1
PO: Barrett, Raigan 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
C
/ Softball
INF
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
P
/ SoftballCoach Richardson, Elena Escobar & Rachel Roupe Talk About The Game Against Oregon
Sunday, May 25
Coach Richardson, Rachel Roupe & Paige Doerr Talk About The Game Against Oregon
Saturday, May 24
Lady Flames Softball Podcast: Breaking Down Liberty vs. Oregon, Rachel Roupe Drafted and More!
Thursday, May 22
Coach Richardson Talks About Preparing For Oregon
Tuesday, May 20