CHADRON, Neb. – As Chadron State softball enters the home stretch of the 2025 season, and with history on the horizon for the Eagles' star hitter, CSC will spend the majority of the last three weeks of the regular season in a friendly but unfamiliar spot – at home. 

The Eagles (14-24, 10-22 RMAC) have played just eight of their 38 games so far at the CSC Softball Field this season but will double that total with eight of their last 12 contests coming in Nebraska. 
It all starts this weekend when CSC plays Fort Lewis (8-28, 7-24 RMAC) on Saturday at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. 

The game will be live streamed on the RMAC Network with live stats available on chadroneagles.com. Sunday's games will be broadcast live on the radio on Double Q Country by Dave Collins. 

Looking Back
Chadron State earned a much-needed split against Colorado School of Mines, dropping the first two against the Orediggers on Saturday but rebounding to win both games on Sunday.

RECAPS: Games 1-2 | Games 3-4

The big inning hurt CSC on day one, as Mines scored their 18 runs on the day across just three frames. The Eagles recovered for two come-from-behind victories on day two, recovering from a 3-0 first-inning hole to win game one 5-3 and scoring four in the sixth and one in the seventh to win game two 7-6.

Record Chase
Senior third baseman Lauren Zimmerman enters the home weekend with a chance to make program history. 

With 35 RBI this season, the Reno, Nevada native now has 136 in her career, just three away from the school record of 139 set by alum Allison Hendricksen (2007-2010). Zimmerman climbed into second with three RBI in CSC's most recent game, passing former teammate Mackenzie Kroll's total of 134 from 2020-2024. 

Zimmerman has reached this point quietly and consistently, only leading the Chadron State team in RBIs over one single season during her career so far (although she does currently lead the 2025 club). Zimmerman has now recorded three consecutive seasons of 35 RBI or better and has never tallied less than her 19 RBI from her 2022 freshman season.

This season, Zimmerman is batting .412 (ninth in the RMAC) with 10 home runs (sixth in the RMAC), 35 RBI (11^th in the RMAC) and a .720 slugging percentage (ninth in the RMAC). Zimmerman has met or exceeded the three RBIs she needs to tie the program record in five separate games during the 2025 season. 

Beyond the RBI record, which Zimmerman can likely attain with 12 regular season games to go in her career, the senior also has other CSC career records under threat. With 33 career home runs, Zimmerman is four homers behind alum Katie Bolin (2009-2011), whose 37 currently top the program record books.

Zimmerman's career .372 average is just ahead of the existing Eagles record of .368 by Patti Buettner (1979-1982). That chase will likely come down to the wire as the 2025 season concludes. Buettner also holds the single season batting average program record at .448 from 1982.

RMAC Update
Chadron State has work to do to qualify for the RMAC Tournament, but the Eagles certainly have the ability to make a run if they are able to rack up wins in upcoming games against teams currently below them in the standings.

CSC is currently in ninth place in the league standings with a 10-22 RMAC record, having won five of its last eight. The top six teams in the RMAC qualify for the league's postseason tournament. Here is a look at the current standings:
Team                                    RMAC            Overall
Colorado Mesa                     27-5                29-9
MSU Denver                         26-5                31-9
Colorado Christian               26-6                30-12
CSU Pueblo                          23-9                24-15
Black Hills State                   19-13              21-19
UCCS                                     18-13              24-18

Colorado School of Mines      12-19              13-29
Regis                                      12-20              13-28
Chadron State                        10-22              14-24
Fort Lewis                              7-24                8-28
New Mexico Highlands          7-25                13-29
Adams State                         3-29                5-39

Of the three teams currently behind the Eagles in the standings, Chadron State will host two of them (Fort Lewis and Adams State) over the final three weeks of the season. In its lone remaining road series, Chadron State will travel to Colorado Mesa, which is one of three teams within a game of one another for the conference lead.

Stat Spotlights
Chadron State's team batting average of .270 ranks ninth in the RMAC while its team ERA of 5.64 ranks eighth. 

The Eagles rank fifth in the RMAC as a team in home runs (28), fourth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.88) and fourth in pitching strikeouts per seven innings (4.68). 

Eagles pitcher Kenzi Garner is tied for second in the RMAC with 18 games started and is 10^th with 89 innings pitched. Belle Akins is tied for second in the league with three saves. 

J'lyssa Martinez and Ashland Baca each rank in the league's top 10 in on-base percentage, with Martinez coming ninth at .475 and Baca in 10^th at .467. Baca also ranks ninth in walks with 19 and tied for fourth with four sacrifice flies to boost her OBP. 

No-Hitter
On February 24, in her first career RMAC start, freshman pitcher Belle Akins threw a five-inning no-hitter against the New Mexico Highlands Cowgirls. 

The no-no is only the second in recorded history for the Eagles and the first since Christina Lewis threw one in the 2011 season. During her no-hitter, Akins allowed just two walks for the only baserunners of the day and struck out six Cowgirls, including the first and last hitters of the game. 

The following day, Akins was honored as the RMAC's Pitcher of the Week.

RMAC Polls
Chadron State was picked to finish 10^th in the 12-team RMAC in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own team. The Eagles also finished 10^th in the RMAC last season with a 12-28 record in conference play. 

Defending league champion Colorado Mesa was picked to win the RMAC again this season, receiving eight of 12 first-place votes. Colorado Christian received two first-place votes and finished second in the poll while MSU Denver and Regis each got one first-place vote and came third and fourth, respectively. 

The final two RMAC Tournament positions according to the preseason poll went to CSU Pueblo in fifth and UCCS in sixth. The remainder of the poll featured Colorado School of Mines, Fort Lewis and Black Hills State ahead of the Eagles, while Chadron State finished above New Mexico Highlands and Adams State in preseason voting.

Scouting Fort Lewis
Fort Lewis is 8-28 overall with a 7-24 RMAC record. The Skyhawks are coming off a four-game sweep at the hands of Colorado Mesa, but split a four-game series with New Mexico Highlands and swept Adams State to get back in the standings after a 1-18 start.  

Redshirt freshman outfielder Makenna Milliman leads the Skyhawks with a .383 batting average. Fort Lewis has received 10 doubles apiece from senior Briana Jorgensen (.356) and freshman Alyssa Fockler (.308) while Jorgensen also leads with 22 RBI and co-leads with four home runs. 

In the circle, FLC has four pitchers with over 35 innings pitched and between a 4.00 and 5.00 ERA. Amiee Shanks has a team-best 4.03 ERA in 74.2 innings pitched, while innings leader Hailie Mann (80.2 IP) has a 4.86 ERA and a team-best 50 strikeouts. 

Second-year coach Paige Adair went 17-30 (15-23 RMAC) in her first season at the helm of the Skyhawks. She served as an assistant coach at FLC for two seasons before rising to the head job. A decorated pitcher, Adair is a former two-time RMAC Pitcher of the Year and 2022 South Central Region Pitcher of the Year as a student-athlete with Colorado Mesa. 

Coach's Corner
After previously serving as Chadron State's head softball coach from 2008-2017 and helping out the program as a coaching assistant for the past two seasons, Dr. Robert Stack will serve as CSC's Interim Softball Coach for the 2025 season. 

Stack has been a math professor at CSC for the past 26 years and was previously RMAC Coach of the Year in 2014. During Stack's head coaching career, he led an Eagles program that had not qualified for the RMAC Tournament prior to his tenure to four conference tournament appearances. Stack's teams set a new school record for wins in three of his last four seasons as coach (2014, 2016 and 2017), with the 32 wins by the 2017 team still standing as the program season high. 

Stack has also mentored two RMAC Pitchers of the Year (Casey Williams in 2010 and Tayler Hall in 2016) as well as two RMAC All-Academic Players of the Year (Williams in 2009 and Cassie Humphrey in 2010) and a two-time RMAC Summit Award winner (Breeze Phillips in 2014 and 2016).