Elena Escobar guides Liberty over No. 1 Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Liberty’s Elena Escobar took the mound with multiple ailments Saturday at Texas A&M’s Davis Diamond. The senior majoring in nursing has been pitching with a tender Achilles. 

She also has bursitis in her right knee. Yet, she didn’t show any discomfort in the circle while silencing arguably the hottest bats in NCAA softball. Even a torrent of errors behind her couldn’t shake her resolve or betray any sense of frustration as she led Liberty over No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M. 

As soon as the final strike was called, silencing the stunned crowd, Elena Escobar took off her face guard, lifted her arms in triumph and then tossed her glove and guard toward the first base dugout. 

Escobar waited for her teammates to rush toward. The Flames mobbed Escobar near the pitcher’s circle, celebrating the biggest upset of the NCAA Softball Tournament so far.

A day after Texas A&M scored 18 runs and combined for a no-hitter to open their Bryan-College Station Regional, the Aggies were kept in check by Escobar. Liberty upset the Aggies 8-5 to advance to Sunday’s Regional championship game. 

Better than box score reflected

Escobar was better than the score reflected. She held the Aggies to five hits, five runs (three earned) and three walks with three strikeouts over seven impressive innings. The Aggies had won their previous four games by run-rule, outscoring then-No. 2 Tennessee, then-No. 12 South Carolina and then-No. 5 Texas and Saint Francis by a combined 57-8. 

“I think it’s kind of a gut punch, right?” Texas A&M coach Trish Ford said. “It’s an opportunity for us to respond the way we should. But it definitely puts things in perspective. We’re one loss away from our season ending this weekend. I think it puts things in perspective, and hopefully it gets them to focus up a little more.”

Elena Escobar wasn’t made available to the media afterward, but she made the biggest statement of the afternoon in the circle. The Flames’ defense imploded with two errors behind Escobar in the second inning as the Aggies scored four runs, two of them earned.

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With a different official scorer, the Flames would have been tagged with three errors in the second inning. The first run scored when Liberty’s third baseman made a poor throw home. The throw forced the catcher to leap to make the play. Amari Harper slid home before Liberty catcher Savannah Lilly could step on the plate.

Latina Excellence alert!
Liberty’s Elena Escobar just beat No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M 8-5 to advance to the Bryan-College Station Regional championship game.
She held the Aggies to 5 runs (three earned) with two strikeouts over seven strong innings. pic.twitter.com/BVUdJJTe83

— Our Esquina (@OurEsquina) May 17, 2025

Harper was initially called out, but the call was overturned after a replay review. Liberty coach Dot Richardson made the case that her third baseman Rachel Craine should have been called for an error on the throw. 

Whatever the case, Escobar surrendered only one run the rest of the way to capitalize on her teammates’ firepower against Texas A&M ace Emiley Kennedy.

Elena Escobar is ‘a fighter’

“The kid is a fighter,” Richardson said of Escobar. “And the team responds to her. And she never blames anyone else. There’s pitchers that will blame their teammates for not making the plays, but not E.

“And when you see that, that’s a born leader. And that’s somebody who deserves the ball, and I promise you she wants it again and again and again.”

Richardson and the Flames surely would rather not have Escobar take the ball more than once Sunday. Liberty sent the host Aggies to the loser’s bracket Saturday night.

“In the postseason anybody can beat anybody,” Ford said. “That’s a good team over there. Nothing against them, but we didn’t play our game. That to me is what hopefully our team feels right now.”