Lancers Splits Friday Doubleheader with Abilene Christian

Friday, April 25

Riverside, Calif.

4:00 PM

California Baptist University

23-25, 11-8

Abilene Christian

13-33, 9-10

ACU

California Baptist

Photo by: Jonathan Vivanco

Lancers Splits Friday Doubleheader with Abilene Christian

4/25/2025 10:48:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Daniel Cook, Director of Athletics Communications & Digital Media

RIVERSIDE - California Baptist softball opened the final regular season Western Athletic Conference series against Abilene Christian on Friday night, splitting the doubleheader with a 2-1 win and a 5-2 loss. Despite the split, CBU remains in third place in the conference at 11-9 in WAC play and mathematically in the running to make a run at the two-seed.

Ashlee Annett connected for hits in both games, a significant fact since she extended her conference-best hit streak to 19 straight games. This season's longest streak is 25, so Annett has some work left for that claim. Still, her streak already ranks as the best in the WAC this season and for CBU in the Division I era, surpassing Priscilla Estrada (2023) and Merissa Borkowski (2024), who each made it to 17 straight.

GAME ONE: CBU 2 - ACU 1

The series opener was a pitcher's dual as the offenses slowly caught up to the action. ACU struck first with a solo shot in the second to take an early lead, but small ball and advantageous baserunning in the fourth by CBU leveled the game again. After shutting the door on the Wildcats, who put a runner in scoring position in the top of the seventh, the Lancers were dead set on finishing game one in regulation. Annett would eventually reach on a fielder's choice and advance from first to third after a wild pitch gave her an opening. Kalena Burns came to the plate with the winning run just 60 feet away and came through for her team, poking a 2-1 count into left-center for the walk-off win.

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Morgan McConnell collected win number eight this year in her seventh complete game. The senior allowed just one earned on six hits while striking out four in 102 pitches.

GAME TWO: CBU 2 - ACU 5

Game two also began as a pitcher's duel, with only two hits being recorded in the first three innings. For the second game in a row, ACU opened the scoring, this time in the fourth inning, and again with a solo home run. CBU would answer in the bottom half of the same inning as Annett legged out an RBI single to second base, scoring Kate Penberthy, followed immediately by an RBI double from Burns, scoring Annett from first to give the Lancers the lead. The Wildcats would reclaim their lead in the next half inning, hanging four runs on the Lancers in the top of the fifth to take a 5-2 lead they would hold until the very end.

Saturday's rubber match is set for a 12:00 p.m. first pitch time. Before the start of the game, Senior Day festivities are set to begin around 11:30 a.m. for seven seniors playing their final WAC regular season game at Funk Stadium. A short recognition ceremony will happen pre-game, with senior videos to follow on the video board at the end of the game.