Ever get March Madness vibes in the middle of May? Well, you can now.
That’s because a tremendous Cinderella story is shaping up in the world of college softball. In fact, something happened on Sunday that had never happened before in NCAA Division I women’s softball history.
The No. 1 team in the country, Texas A&M, failed to reach the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament when it was defeated by unranked Liberty University at Davis Diamond in College Station. The 6-5 victory by the Lady Flames eliminated the Aggies after the teams split the first two games of their series.
In failing to advance past the Bryan-College Station Regional, the Aggies became the first No. 1 national seed to not reach the Super Regionals.
Liberty stunned Texas A&M in Game 1 of their series on Saturday, 8-5. In the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday, the Aggies rebounded with a 14-11 win. But in the decisive second game of the twin bill, the Lady Flames extinguished the Aggies’ hopes of reaching the Women’s College World Series.
Conference USA Player of the Year Rachel Roupe led the way for Liberty, launching two home runs in the clincher, including a go-ahead three-run shot in the sixth that proved to be the game winner. And she did all of that after hitting a grand slam in the first game on Sunday.
With the victory, Liberty advanced to the Super Regionals for the first time in school history and it became the first CUSA school to reach the Super Regionals since 2013.
Next up, the Lady Flames will take on No. 16 Oregon in a best-of-three Super Regional round in Eugene that begins on Friday (10 p.m. ET, ESPNU). If they pull off another upset, they’ll be one of eight teams to reach the College World Series.