Texas A&M was the #1 national seed in the 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament – was, as in, past tense.
The Aggies, from the loaded SEC, which had seven of the top eight national seeds, couldn’t get out of the regional round, falling to Liberty, 6-5, in a winner-take-all elimination game on Sunday.
The win sends Liberty (50-13) to its first-ever appearance in a Super Regional, while Texas A&M (48-11) becomes the first #1 national seed to fail to advance out of a regional.
Liberty, the auto qualifier from Conference USA, went 3-1 on the weekend, beating Marist, 10-5, in its opener on Friday, then upsetting A&M on Saturday, scoring five runs in the sixth to stun the Aggies, 8-5.
Texas A&M run-ruled Marist, 17-4, later on Saturday to earn a rematch with the Flames, then gutted out a 14-11 extra-innings win in an elimination game on Sunday afternoon to set up the win-or-go-home game later in the day.
In the finale, A&M got out to an early 3-0 lead, powered by a two-run second-inning homer by KK Dement and an RBI single from Amari Harper in the third.
The Flames got on the board in the fifth with a solo homer from C-USA Player of the Year Rachel Roupe, then put up the five-spot in the sixth – the runs coming on a two-run homer from Savannah Jessee and then a three-run shot by Roupe.
The Aggies got two runs back in their half of the sixth, on a solo homer from Allie Enright and an RBI single from Koko Wooley, to get to 6-5.
A&M got two runners on in the bottom of the seventh, but Kaylan Yoder closed things out, striking out Kramer Eschete on a 3-2 pitch to end it.
C-USA Pitcher of the Year Elena Escobar (25-3, 2.43 ERA) got the win in the clincher for Liberty, which advances to face #16 national seed Oregon (51-8) in a best-of-three series set to begin on Friday (10 p.m. ET, ESPNU).
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Chris Graham
