CHADRON, Neb. – After continuing to play well at home, Chadron State softball will go back on the road for the final time in the 2025 regular season with an opportunity to factor into the league's title race. 

The Eagles (17-25, 13-23 RMAC) will head to Grand Junction to take on Colorado Mesa (31-11, 29-7 RMAC), who trail first place in the RMAC standings by less than a game. 

Chadron State still has faint mathematical hopes of qualifying for the RMAC Championships but will be facing an opponent motivated by ongoing battles for the RMAC title and potential NCAA Tournament qualification. 

The series will take place Friday and Saturday in Grand Junction. Game times are set for noon and 2 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday, with live streams on the RMAC Network. 

Looking Back
Chadron State earned its third RMAC series win of the season by taking three of four games at home from Fort Lewis.

RECAPS: Games 1-2 | Games 3-4

The Eagles allowed just one run through the first three games of the series, winning 8-0, 2-0 and 8-1, before the Skyhawks turned the tables on CSC and avoided a sweep with a 10-2 win in the finale. 

The victories mean that Chadron State has a 6-6 home record and has won two of the three series contested at the CSC Softball Field, with one home series remaining against Adams State on April 25-26. 

Record Breaker
Senior third baseman Lauren Zimmerman had a banner weekend, becoming Chadron State's all-time career RBI record holder.  

Zimmerman had a five-RBI weekend, racking up two RBI in the first game of the Fort Lewis series and one apiece in each of the next three, surpassing alum Allison Hendricksen with a career total that is now at 141 RBI and counting. The senior tied Hendricksen's record with a sacrifice fly on Saturday and broke it with a second-inning RBI double to left-center on Sunday.

Zimmerman has achieved the record with consistent production that has continued this season. The senior has an active streak of 11 consecutive games with an RBI dating back to March 28 against Regis. 

With her five RBI this past weekend, Zimmerman now has 40 for the season, sealing her third straight campaign with 40 RBI or more. The senior has eight games remaining to surpass her single-season career high of 42 or potentially catch fire and break the program single-season RBI record of 53 set by current assistant coach Kayla Campuzano (then Michel) in 2019.

Beyond the RBI record, Zimmerman also has other CSC career records under threat. With 34 career home runs, Zimmerman is four homers behind alum Katie Bolin (2009-2011), whose 37 currently top the program record books. With 10 home runs this season, Zimmerman now also has three seasons in a row with 10+ bombs, after recording 11 in 2023 and 12 in 2024.

Zimmerman's career .373 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.

Stat Spotlights
Lauren Zimmerman is all over the RMAC leaderboards, ranking in the league's top 10 in several categories including batting average (eighth, .412), slugging percentage (ninth, .711), hits (10^th, 53), RBI (seventh, 40) and home runs (eighth, 10). 

Ashland Baca ranks 10^th in the league with a .462 on-base percentage, helped by a high number of walks (21) and sacrifice flies (four, T-3^rd in the RMAC). 

The Eagles have five qualified hitters batting over .300: Zimmerman (.411), Baca (.367), J'lyssa Martinez (.357), Aliyah Rothstein (.345) and Jazlyn Arvizo (.313). 

Chadron State has hit the fifth-most home runs as a team in the RMAC (32), led by Zimmerman (10), Baca (six) and Sophia Brennan (six). The Eagles have more home runs than any RMAC team hailing from outside the state of Colorado. 

Chadron State's team batting average of .273 ranks ninth in the RMAC, its team ERA of 5.39 ranks eighth and its fielding percentage of .948 also ranks eighth.

Eagles pitcher Kenzi Garner is tied for second in the RMAC with 20 games started. Belle Akins is tied for third in the league with three saves. 

Circle Stars
Chadron State allowed 11 runs across their series with Fort Lewis, the fewest the Eagles have allowed in a four-game series this season, surpassing the 12 runs that CSC held Regis to in a four-game set from March 28-29.  

Tori Haug had a particularly strong series for the Eagles. The senior pitched to a 0.58 ERA, allowing just one run in 12 innings, winning both of her starts in complete-game fashion. 

Haug pitched a complete-game five-inning shutout on Saturday, allowing just two hits while striking out five. The following day, Haug threw seven one-run innings, allowing five hits with three strikeouts. Over the weekend, Haug held the Skyhawks to a .175 batting average and struck out nearly 20 percent of the batters she faced (8 of 44). 

Kenzi Garner was also dominant in her first start of the weekend, pitching a seven-inning shutout. Garner allowed three hits to tie a season-low and racked up a season-high six strikeouts.

Chadron State has relied upon their two senior arms this season, as Garner (20) and Haug (18) have combined to start 38 of CSC's 42 games and rank third and 10^th, respectively, in games started in the RMAC. 
Garner leads the team with a 5.62 ERA in 97.2 innings pitched. Haug is just behind with a 5.87 ERA in 95.0 innings pitched. 

RMAC Update
Despite winning a series last weekend, Chadron State is clinging to its postseason hopes. The top six teams in the RMAC qualify for the league's conference tournament, and four of those spots have been clinched. 

Chadron State, currently in ninth place, trails sixth-place UCCS by 7.5 games with eight games left to play. Here is a look at the current standings. Teams with an asterisk (*) have clinched an RMAC Tournament berth:
 

Team	RMAC	Overall
*MSU Denver	29-6	34-10
*Colorado Mesa	29-7	31-11
*Colorado Christian	28-8	32-14
*CSU Pueblo	24-12	25-18
Black Hills State	21-15	23-21
UCCS	20-15	26-20
Colorado School of Mines	16-19	17-29
Regis	16-20	17-28
Chadron State	13-23	17-25
Fort Lewis	8-27	9-31
New Mexico Highlands	7-29	13-33
Adams State	3-33	5-43

 
Making the title race more fascinating is the fact that MSU Denver, Colorado Mesa and Colorado Christian, who are separated by less than two games at the top, have all gone 4-4 against one another this season, with each matchup ending in a 2-2 series split. 

MSU Denver ends at NMHU and vs. UCCS, Colorado Mesa hosts Chadron State before visiting Black Hills State and CCU travels to Adams before hosting CSU Pueblo.

After facing Colorado Mesa, Chadron State will host Adams State to conclude the season on April 25 and 26 (Friday/Saturday). 

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. She is one of two Chadron State pitchers to win weekly honors this season, as Tori Haug took home her first Pitcher of the Week honor on February 10.

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 Colorado Mesa
Colorado Mesa is 31-11 overall with a 29-7 RMAC record. The Mavericks are coming off a key four-game series split with Colorado Christian but had won an impressive 23 of 24 games prior to that series. Colorado Mesa trails MSU Denver by half a game for first place in the conference standings and has a one-game lead over Colorado Christian for second place. 

The Mavericks are led by reigning RMAC Player of the Year and All-American Myah Arrieta, who is batting .428. Arrieta and redshirt senior catcher Ally Distler are tied for second in the RMAC with 14 home runs apiece. Distler (50 RBI) ranks second in the RMAC in that category, too, while Arrieta (47) is tied for third. 

In the circle, CMU has three pitchers that have started over 10 games, and all of them have a sub-3.50 ERA. Redshirt freshman Jessalynn Gallegos has a 1.96 ERA in 125 innings pitched with the second-most strikeouts in the league (126). Preslee Christensen (2.63 ERA, 61.1 IP) and Sophia Tassinari (3.39 ERA, 51.2 IP) are also putting together good seasons.

Head Coach Mercedes Bohte joined the CMU staff in 2015, spent the 2021 season as interim head coach, and has been the full-time coach since the 2022 season. In her four previous seasons as head coach, Bohte has won three RMAC regular-season titles (2021, 2022,2024), one RMAC Tournament title (2021) and two RMAC Coach of the Year awards (2021, 2024).

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).