No. 1 seed Texas A&M staves off elimination following loss to Liberty

Game #56: #2 Liberty 8, #1 Texas A&M 5
Records: Texas A&M (46-10, 16-7), Liberty (49-12, 23-3)
WP: Elena Escobar (24-3)
LP: Emiley Kennedy (21-5)
Box Score

Game #57: #1 Texas A&M 17, #3 Marist 4 (5 innings)
Records: Texas A&M (47-10, 16-7), Marist (48-9-1, 21-2-1)
WP: Emily Leavitt (5-2)
LP: Kiley Myers (23-2)
Box Score

Following an 8-5 upset loss to Liberty, No. 1 national seed Texas A&M took care of business against Marist in a 17-4 triumph to set up a must-win rematch against the Lady Flames on Sunday, May 18, at 3 p.m. CT.

At 2-1 on the weekend, the Aggies must beat the Lady Flames twice to reach a super regional next week.

“Obviously, we took care of what we needed to after the first game today, so that was good,” A&M head coach Trisha Ford said. “My mind is already on tomorrow. We’ve got to come out tomorrow, and we’re going to do it the hard way. If anybody can do it, we can.”

In its bout against Liberty, A&M jockeyed into position for a 5-3 advantage entering the sixth and were six outs away from moving to 2-0 on the weekend.

Instead, a calamitous five-run inning from Liberty left the Aggies staring at an 8-5 defeat and needing to win three straight games to keep their season alive.

“Honestly, very disappointed in our effort today,” Ford said after the Liberty matchup. “I felt like we were not focused. We didn’t execute in all parts of our game. Got to regroup. We’ll take the hard way through this.”

After being left in the garage for Friday’s tussle with Saint Francis, left-hander Emiley Kennedy was expected to do what she does best and out-duel the opponent pitcher.

However, “Lefty” didn’t look like herself, giving up 11 hits and two home runs, despite her eight strikeouts.

This time, she was bested by Liberty right-hander Elena Escobar’s consistency attacking the zone as she kept the Aggies from ever making great contact with a pitch.

“We chased today,” Ford said. “I felt like that hurt us. Obviously, everybody’s in the postseason for a reason, so they have the ability to go out and compete. I hope that we get another chance and the outcome is different.”

Despite Escobar winning the showdown with Kennedy, A&M held a 5-3 advantage in the sixth.

After adding a run on a passed ball, the power of the Lady Flames’ lineup lit an inferno along the basepaths. Designated player Alyssa Henault lasered a single to right center, scoring two runs. On the subsequent pitch, centerfielder KK Madrey went yard, as Liberty’s lead ballooned to 8-5.

Conversely, A&M’s offense went ice cold just as the Lady Flames heated up.

Mya Perez and cMac Barbara went hitless for the second time in the Bryan-College Station Regional, a far cry from their 129 combined RBIs and 24 homers on the season.

Early in the game, as A&M’s thought-to-be-formidable offense went three up, three down in the first, the back half of the Aggies’ lineup first lit up the Davis Diamond scoreboard. A pair of fielding errors from the Lady Flames allowed the Maroon & White to load the bases.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Mac Barbara finished the rout of Marist by going 3-for-4 with five RBIs.

As left fielder Kramer Eschete skipped a ball to third base, Amari Harper charged home, fearlessly sliding into a physical collision with catcher Savannah Jesseee. Originally called out, Ford challenged the call, which was reversed to give A&M the 1-0 lead.

The Aggies kept the bags full, and RBIs from Kelsey Mathis, Kennedy Powell and Koko Wooley ended the frame with a 4-0 advantage for the home team.

Liberty continued to make contact off Kennedy’s pitches, earning six hits in the first three innings. A two-pitch sequence from the Lady Flames got them right back into the game, with an off-the-wall RBI triple and a two-run homer that plated three in a blink.

In the bottom of the third, KK Dement’s double down the left field line put Harper on third, who was promptly brought home by Alllie Enright’s sac fly for the only Maroon run of the inning.

Yet, that was the end of A&M’s output in the first game as Liberty pitching stifled the Aggies across the final four frames.

After Marist run-ruled Saint Francis for its first NCAA Tournament win in program history, the Aggies returned to the field to keep their season alive.

A&M didn’t take long to get the offensive engine revving against Marist, with back-to-back doubles from Barbara and Harper scoring a pair of runs. On the next at-bat, Dement launched a 275-foot, two-run missile over the Davis Diamond scoreboard to make it 4-0.

With right-hander Emily Leavitt in the circle to start for the Maroon & White in game two, the Aggies gave up one run on a sloppy passed ball, scoring a runner from second.

“I thought [Leavitt] did a good job,” Ford said. “I thought she worked through her changeup struggles today. I thought she did a good job of hitting her spots. That Marist team can swing it. Everybody, I feel, like can swing it.”

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Texas A&M scored 10 runs in the fourth inning vs. Marist with Amari Harper’s grand slam serving as an exclamation point on the rally.

Perez awoke in the second inning with a single to left center that gave Wooley enough time to fly around the bags and add A&M’s fifth run of the game. The bottom of the second came with blunders defensively that allowed a Marist RBI triple on what could have been limited to a single.

The game became a full-on fiesta for the Aggies in the fourth, as Perez launched a home run 246 feet to begin the frame. Barbara also awoke from her sleepy regional, blasting another home run over the wall just two pitches later.

Back-to-back doubles off the wall from Enright and Dement brought another run home. Kylei Griffin, Powell and Barbara added RBIs to bring the score to 11-2. Harper proceeded to plunge a dagger into the heart of the Red Foxes and blow the non-existent roof off Davis Diamond with her first career grand slam to top off a 10-run fourth.

With a wandering eye already starting to look ahead to tomorrow’s put-up-or-shut-up Sunday, A&M stayed in cruise control for the rest of the 17-4 run-rule victory.

In front of what’s sure to be a rowdy home crowd, the Aggies will stare down Liberty in a bid for season-saving revenge.

“Liberty is going to come out, we know this,” Ford said. “They are feisty, they are competitive, they are in [the] postseason for a reason. So it is going to be up to us, and we are going to control our destiny.”