RIVERSIDE - The California Baptist University softball team ended its 2025 campaign on Thursday after dropping games to 2-seeded Tarleton State, 5-0, and 8-seeded Utah Valley, 9-7. The Lancers end the up-and-down season with a 26-32 record overall, 11-13 in the Western Athletic Conference, and 2-2 in the WAC Championships Tournament.
GAME ONE: CBU 0 - TAR 5
The morning tilt started off promising enough, with Matti Severns and Priscilla Estrada singling to lead off the game. Unfortunately, they would be stranded in those positions as CBU would truly threaten the Texans only once more after that when they loaded the bases in the third.
TSU would defeat the Lancers methodically, with seven of their nine hits being singles and working three walks. CBU would manage just four hits in the game, three of which came from Estrada.
GAME TWO: CBU 7 - UVU 9
Game two was a barnburner from the start, with one or both teams scoring in all but two innings. CBU jumped out to the early lead as Kate Penberthy and Ashlee Annett drove in Estrada and Penberthy, respectively, to take a familiar 2-0 lead. The Wolverines would answer back with double the runs in the bottom of the second, but the Lancers would take one back in the third courtesy of her record-tying 10th home run of the season, making it a 4-3 game still in favor of Utah Valley.
Annett would give the Lancers a 5-4 lead with a fourth-inning double, scoring Estrada and Stevie Robison. However, the back-and-forth affair swung back to green in the bottom half of the same inning, and a double and a sac fly would plate a pair for UVU, handing them back the one-run advantage.
Burns remained hot in the sixth inning, smashing a double down the left field line to score Annett and Robison, again flipping the lead, this time to 7-6 Lancers. UVU wouldn't go away, though, and after opening the bottom of the sixth with a flyout, they converted a walk and a single into two runs from an RBI triple, and the next batter would sacrifice her teammate home to take the final lead of 9-7.
This year's Lancers will leave some major holes behind both in the lineup and the team dynamic. Four-year starters Sydney Soto and Estrada will not be back for 2026, leaving holes and opportunities for new players in the critical defensive positions of center field and shortstop. Statistically, those two players will also take with them a great deal of consistency as Estrada finishes her career with the most starts of any player in the Division I era, 206, and Soto with the most games played, 2014, with the other just a few tally marks behind the other in both categories.
Estrada will also claim a record that will be difficult to challenge during the Transfer Portal movement. The shortstop retires as CBU's DI era hits leader, smacking 211 base knocks, 26 of which were for extra bases. Burns was in the Blue and Gold for just two seasons, but her impact was felt. She'll be remembered for setting the Division I career home run record (20), the single-season home run record (10, twice), and being the first Lancer in the DI era to have back-to-back double-digit home run seasons in 2024 & 25. Morgan McConnell was as reliable as they come in the circle for the Lancers, finishing her career with 23 wins, second most in the DI era, and career ERA (3.64), saves (6), and strikeouts (133) numbers that will place her in the top-five of each category, and she will take with her the records for most starts (55), appearances (8), and innings pitched (350.1), in Division I.
