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Game #58: #1 Texas A&M 14, #2 Liberty 11 (8 innings)
Records: Texas A&M (48-10, 16-7), Liberty (49-13, 23-3)
WP: Sydney Lessentine (6-2)
LP: Paige Bachman (11-4)
Box Score
Game #59: #2 Liberty 6, #1 Texas A&M 5
Records: Texas A&M (48-11, 16-7), Liberty (50-13, 23-3)
WP: Elena Escobar (25-3)
LP: Emiley Kennedy (21-6)
Save: Kaylan Yoder (1)
Box Score
After a magical season that peaked with being named co-champions of the 2025 SEC Softball Tournament, No. 1 national seed Texas A&M suffered a 6-5 loss to Liberty in Game 7 of the Bryan-College Station Regional on Sunday night.
With the loss, the Aggies become the first top-seeded team to not reach a super regional since the NCAA Tournament began seeding in 2005.
Backed into a corner and needing to win two straight on Sunday, A&M fought and clawed its way out of holes in both games and played through extra innings to win 14-11 in an afternoon affair to give itself a chance.
However, a five-run sixth inning in the nightcap led to the defeat that ended the Aggies’ season.
“These kids worked their tails off all year. They earned everything that was given to them, and we also earned this loss. … It wasn’t on my bingo card, to be honest with you.”
- Texas A&M head coach Trisha Ford
“There was so much good about this season,” head coach Trisha Ford said. “It’s just hard because of how this finished.
“These kids worked their tails off all year. They earned everything that was given to them, and we also earned this loss. … It wasn’t on my bingo card, to be honest with you.”
After an emotional rollercoaster of an early game, A&M led 3-1 in the sixth and positioned itself well with just six outs away from the super regional round. But catcher Savannah Jessee’s home run tied the game and forced Ford to remove left-hander Emiley Kennedy in her last moments in Maroon.
“[Kennedy] has been huge for us,” Ford said. “She’s helped build this program. Today just wasn’t her day. That’s sometimes how it goes. We’ve all been there. Unfortunately, pitching-wise, we had a lot of arms that we just couldn’t execute when we needed to.”
Righty Grace Sparks entered the circle and gave up a single and a three-run homer to put the Aggies behind, 6-3.
Needing an answer, Allie Enright’s clutch gene showed up again at the perfect time as she smoked a solo homer 262 feet to put the Aggies within two. Senior Koko Wooley had one more special moment under the Davis lights with an RBI single to cut the deficit to one.
With senior right-hander Emily Leavitt doing her job and going three up, three down in the seventh, all the Aggies needed was one run to save the season.
One run to keep dancing.
A&M put two baserunners on with a single and a walk, but Liberty southpaw Kaylan Yoder fizzed a ball past the swinging bat of Kramer Eschete to end it.
Will Huffman, TexAgs
In three appearances this weekend, All-American left-hander Emiley Kennedy allowed 15 runs on 14 hits across just nine innings pitched.
Ecstasy for the Lady Flames. Heartbreak for the Aggies.
“I want us to be remembered by our grit,” Kennedy Powell said. “We weren’t going to go down without a fight. We fought to the very last out in any and every game we played.”
The day’s conclusion was even harder to stomach after coming back and even needing an extra inning to stave off elimination earlier in the day.
Despite her eight earned runs against the Lady Flames on Saturday, Ford stuck to her guns and started her ace.
However, “Lefty” struggled again, putting A&M in a two-run hole before Ford pulled the senior.
Right-hander Sidne Peters briefly entered, but a Rachel Roupe grand slam put the Lady Flames up 6-0 and the Aggies on the brink.
In the fourth inning, the Aggies finally looked like the team they had been all year, erasing a 6-1 deficit in a blink.
Freshman KK Dement jolted the crowd awake with a home run on the second pitch of the inning. The Aggies kept rolling with four more runs, capped by back-to-back homers from Mya Perez and Mac Barbara.
“The future is very bright,” Ford said. “KK, that kid is special. Like so good, and just a student of the game.”
A&M kept the pressure on in the fifth, with seven straight batters reaching safely to tack on three more runs and put the team in the driver’s seat with a 10-6 lead.
Ford turned to an unlikely face: freshman left-handed spinner Kate Munnerlyn to relieve.
Will Huffman, TexAgs
Texas A&M finishes 2025 with a 48-11 overall record.
The little-used rookie showed her guts and only allowed one more run into the sixth, which she ended on a strikeout with two runners aboard.
A&M added an insurance run in the seventh via a Perez single that scored Wooley, but Munnerlyn’s luck ran out as the Lady Flames tied it with three straight singles and a bases-loaded hit by pitch. Fellow freshman Sydney Lessentine entered and escaped the potential game-winning jam to force extras.
The eighth inning saw Powell single up the middle to score Enright and Eschete right before Kelsey Mathis crossed on a Wooley grounder that grew the A&M lead to an insurmountable 14-11.
Yet those good feelings were erased as the sun set on Davis Diamond and the 2025 A&M softball season.
“I’m excited for this freshman class and also who’s returning next year,” Ford said. “We have pieces, we know this. We just have to keep moving forward, the sun will come out tomorrow.”
