Softball On SI

Elena Escobar’s Legacy of Grit Lives On as Liberty Softball Reaches Super Regional

Maren Angus-Coombs|
Elena Escobar and the Liberty Flames will play the Oregon Ducks in Super Regionals starting Friday.
Elena Escobar and the Liberty Flames will play the Oregon Ducks in Super Regionals starting Friday. | Liberty Athletics

Liberty senior Elena Escobar has been so close to the big win so many times in her career that beating Texas A&M on Sunday to earn a Super Regional berth might have made all those moments worth it.

In the Bryan-College Station Regional, Escobar appeared in all four games. She pitched a total of 22.0 innings and won three games, including two against the Aggies.

However, Escobar wasn't on the mound when the Liberty Flames pulled off the miracle. Instead, she was in tears because of the pain.

"When we went out in that if championship game, we did not take her out," Richardson said during her Super Regional preview press conference on Wednesday. "Her tears were because she could not give any more. She gave up a home run, she gave up two singles back-to-back and she realized that she's giving her best, and her best, at that time, wasn't good enough to make it happen. She was in such pain."

According to Richardson, Escobar has an Achilles injury and a knee injury. When she isn't on the field, she wears a walking boot.

However, pitching through adversity is nothing new for Escobar.

As a junior at Summit High School in Spring Hill, Tenn., she was recovering from shoulder surgery and could only pitch in junior varsity games due to a TSSAA transfer rule.

"I would have to tell the other coaches I'm really sorry but she needs innings," Summit head coach Jenny Stevenson told Softball On SI in a phone interview on Wednesday. "She's not your typical JV pitcher so we would just throw her for a few batters in some of the JV games and say sorry."

Escobar ended up leading the Spartans to their first TSSAA softball state tournament as a senior, finishing in third. She spent her first two collegiate seasons with North Alabama and then transferred to Liberty ahead of her junior season, when the Flames were one out shy of a Super Regional.

Stevenson saw the beginning of something great brewing inside Escobar early on. She referred to the pitcher as a "warrior" and a "fierce competitor."

"You can almost look into her eyes and say, 'Yep, we're winning today,'" Stevenson added. "I feel like that's how it is with Elena. You can just see it in her eyes that she was not going to be defeated."

More of the same should be expected from Escobar ahead of the Eugene Super Regional. She is determined to get the Flames to their first Women's College World Series.

"This our final run," Escobar said in College Station. "Everyone is just leaving it all on the field. Playing every game with everything that we have and trying to enjoy the moments that we get, staying present, I think that's the biggest thing we've learned from this year. Be present every single game."

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Bryan-College Station Softball Regional: Schedule & Updates

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Maren Angus-Coombs
MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 for various outlets including Softball America, ESPNW and Hurrdat Sports. She is currently the managing editor of Softball On SI and also serves as an analyst for Nebraska softball games on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+.

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