Liberty left no doubt in Saturday’s winner-take-all CUSA Championship Final, jumping on top of Jacksonville State with two runs in the first before eventually winning by run rule, 8-0, in five innings at WKU Softball Complex in Bowling Green, Kentucky..
The Lady Flames become the first team since East Carolina in 2010-11 to win back-to-back CUSA Softball Championship titles, doing so in impressive fashion and to secure the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament where Liberty will compete in regional play next weekend. The championship is also Liberty’s fourth conference tournament title in the past five seasons.
The championship final featured a rematch of Friday’s winner’s bracket semifinals where the No. 3 seed Gamecocks got the best of the regular season champs and the No. 1 seed Liberty, winning 7-2. The Flames then had to face elimination Friday night defeating Louisiana Tech, 2-1, in 10 innings. With the win Saturday, Liberty improved to 4-1 against Jacksonville State this season and 47-12 overall following up a dominating 23-3 CUSA record.
The story was all about Liberty pitcher Elena Escobar. The CUSA Pitcher of the Year finished the regular season with a 19-3 record with a 2.08 ERA and five shutouts. She was even better against conference opponents with a 12-0 record and 1.33 ERA. She carried over her dominating performance into the conference tournament. Escobar threw 261 pitches in wins over Louisiana Tech on Thursday and again Friday. In the elimination game win Friday night against the Bulldogs, Escobar pitched 10 innings and only allowed one run while tossing 163 pitches. Liberty head coach Dot Richardson went back to Escobar, handing her the ball in the circle for the championship game, and Escobar would not let her head coach down. The first seven outs recorded by Escobar were all strikeouts. She finished the day with a complete game shutout, pitching five innings, striking out nine, and only allowing two hits.
Liberty provided the run support Escobar needed to not face any significant pressure. The Flames scored two in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly from Brooke Roberts and an RBI single by Paige Doerr, Friday night’s hero who had the game winning, walk-off RBI single with the bases loaded against Louisiana Tech in the 10th inning to help propel the Flames to Saturday’s final. The Lady Flames added another run in the second as Brynn McManus worked a two-out walk with the bases loaded.
Entering the bottom of the third with a 3-0 advantage, the Flames would leave no doubt. Rachel Craine’s RBI single, her first hit of the tournament, scored KK Madrey. Liberty would then load the bases for a third straight inning, setting the stage for Savannah Woodard’s grand slam, pushing the lead to 8-0.
Escobar was named the Tournament’s MVP despite working through an Achilles’ injury that has plagued her much of the season forcing her to wear a boot on her foot when she’s not pitching. In three wins this weekend in Bowling Green, Escobar pitched 21 innings, allowing just one run on 11 hits while striking out 20. She threw 341 pitches in the three games over the past three days.
In addition to Escobar, Savannah Woodard, Paige Doerr, and KK Madrey were also named to the CUSA All-Tournament Team for the Lady Flames.
It has been a dominating two-year start to the team’s stint in Conference USA. Under Coach Richardson, the Lady Flames now have two regular season titles, two tournament titles, and have won all 17 CUSA series. Liberty will find out its destination in the 2025 NCAA DI Softball Tournament during the live selection show on Sunday, May 11 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics
