CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State softball will conclude its 2025 season and honor its seniors with the final series of the year this Friday and Saturday vs. Adams State at the CSC Softball Field in Chadron. 

The Eagles (18-28, 14-26 RMAC) host the Grizzlies (5-47, 3-37 RMAC) with the opportunity to pass the 20-win barrier for just the second time since the Eagles set a school record with 32 wins during the 2017 season. 

Chadron State will not qualify for the RMAC Tournament, but the Eagles can finish no worse than ninth in the league standings and are guaranteed to best their preseason prediction of 10^th. CSC can climb up to eighth place if the right results break their way. 

Game times are scheduled for 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday. Senior Day festivities will take place in between games on Saturday. All games will be available to stream live on the RMAC Network, while game one on Friday will be streamed on Double Q Country radio.

Looking Back
Chadron State dropped the first three games of a series with the Colorado Mesa Mavericks, but potentially played spoiler in the RMAC title race by defeating CMU in the series finale and knocking the Mavericks down from first place to second.

RECAPS: Games 1-2 | Games 3-4

Chadron State struggled offensively early on, scoring three runs over the first three games of the series, but produced an emphatic 6-0 victory in the series finale, using a complete-game shutout from Kenzi Garner and five different CSC players tallying an RBI (Ashland Baca, Elizabeth Thorngren, Jazlyn Arvizo, Lauren Zimmerman and J'lyssa Martinez with two).

Senior Day
Chadron State's Senior Day celebration will take place between doubleheader games on Saturday. 

The Eagles have eight seniors who will be honored. They are, in numerical order: Sydney Loyet, Angelina Quezada, Tori Haug, Kenzi Garner, J'lyssa Martinez, Lauren Zimmerman, Kendall Petty and Ashland Baca. 

Chadron State is losing some lineup fixtures, as this year's graduating class includes pitchers in Garner and Haug who have combined to start 42 of CSC's 46 contests, as well as CSC's top four hitters with the most games started this season (Baca with 46, Zimmerman with 45, Martinez with 43 and Quezada with 41). 

Free Admission
To help celebrate senior weekend and collaborate with other events on campus, such as CSC's annual community service day on Saturday, The Big Event, Chadron State athletics will be offering free admission to all fans attending softball games vs. Adams State on either Friday or Saturday. 

In addition, Friday will be Kids Day at the ballpark, with free popcorn offered to all children in the ballpark. 

Garner-ing Attention
Senior Kenzi Garner has thrown two complete-game shutouts this year, with one coming in each of the past two weeks. 

Against Colorado Mesa last Saturday, Garner needed 82 pitches to get 21 outs, holding CMU to just three hits and two walks. The week prior against Fort Lewis, Garner also allowed only three hits in seven innings and set a season-high with six strikeouts. 

This season, Garner is pitching to a team-low 5.37 ERA in a team-high 110.2 innings pitched and 22 games started. Garner has thrown nine complete games on the season, including in three of her past four starts. 

Ya Like Jaz?
Junior infielder Jazlyn Arvizo has steadily moved up Chadron State's batting order. Primarily in the No. 5 spot in the order at the start of the season, Arvizo began batting in the two-hole during CSC's series against Regis and moved up to the leadoff spot for each of the four games against Colorado Mesa last weekend.

Arvizo was instrumental in the series finale, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. This season, Arvizo is one of five Eagles with a batting average over .300, hitting .304 on the season with a .382 on-base percentage that ranks fifth on the team. 

Defensively, Arvizo has also been versatile, seeing consistent time at both first base and second base depending on the rest of the Eagles' lineup. Arvizo also filled in capably in right field for two games after an injury during Chadron State's most recent home series. 

Hot Bats
Ashland Baca had a great offensive series last week at CMU, finishing 7-for-12 in the four-game set with two doubles and a run batted in. Baca leads Chadron State with a .388 batting average and a .469 on-base percentage, ranking 10^th in the RMAC in OBP.

Lauren Zimmerman joins Baca as CSC hitters with an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of over 1.0, with Zimmerman at 1.045 and Baca at 1.081. Zimmerman's 10 home runs on the season ranks eighth in the RMAC.  

The Eagles have five qualified hitters batting over .300: Baca (.388), Zimmerman (380) J'lyssa Martinez (.347), Aliyah Rothstein (.345) and Jazlyn Arvizo (.304). 

The Eagles have six players with double-digit RBI this season – Zimmerman (41), Baca (34), Martinez (23), Sophia Brennan (18) Arvizo (14) and Brogan Allen (10). 

Chadron State has hit the sixth-most home runs as a team in the RMAC (34), 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 .271 ranks ninth in the RMAC, its team ERA of 5.29 ranks seventh and its fielding percentage of .947 ranks ninth.

RMAC Update
The six slots in the RMAC Softball Championships have been clinched, but the seeding order is still anyone's guess. The teams in the tournament field will be MSU Denver, Colorado Mesa, Colorado Christian, CSU Pueblo, Black Hills State and UCCS. 

The title race will certainly come down to the season's final day. The top three teams – MSU Denver (32-7), Colorado Mesa (32-8) and Colorado Christian (32-8) – are separated by less than a game with one weekend to go. 

Teams four through six are also grouped tightly heading into the season's final weekend, with CSU Pueblo at 26-14, Black Hills State at 24-16 and UCCS at 22-15. The Yellow Jackets of BHSU are making their first-ever RMAC Tournament appearance as a program. 

As it turns out, the season's final weekend features three matchups between the top three and second three groups. MSU Denver hosts UCCS, Colorado Mesa travels to Black Hills State and Colorado Christian hosts CSU Pueblo. 

Colorado School of Mines, Regis, Chadron State, Fort Lewis, New Mexico Highlands and Adams State will miss out on postseason play. The Eagles are in ninth place and trail eighth-place Regis by three games with four to play. CSC cannot drop lower than ninth, as they have a 4.5-game lead over 10^th-place Fort Lewis with four to play.

Record Breaker
Senior third baseman Lauren Zimmerman became Chadron State's all-time career RBI record holder during a home series against Fort Lewis on April 12-13. 

Zimmerman has surpassed alum Allison Hendricksen with a career total that is now at 142 RBI and counting. The senior tied Hendricksen's record with a sacrifice fly on April 12 and broke it with a second-inning RBI double to left-center on April 13. 

Zimmerman now has 41 RBI for the season, sealing her third straight campaign with 40 RBI or more. The senior has four 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 three homers behind alum Katie Bolin (2009-2011) for second place on the school's all-time home run list. Former teammate Mackenzi Kroll holds the record with 42. 

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 .366 average is neck-and-neck with 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.

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 Adams State
The 2025 season has been a challenge for Adams State. The Grizzlies are 5-47 overall with a 3-37 RMAC record.

The Grizzlies have two qualified hitters batting above .300 – junior Sydney Rodriguez (.331) and junior Kaylee Eyl (.300). Junior Grace Hendrickson leads the team with four home runs, but three Grizzlies have over 10 doubles – Emily Sauvageau (13), Rodriguez (12) and Caylie Eiguren (11). Sauvageau is the only ASU player to start every game this season. 

In the circle, ASU's two primary starters are sophomore Aubree Davis, who has a 9.51 ERA in 134 innings pitched, and freshman Page Celie, who has a 10.79 ERA in 109 innings.

Head Coach Dane Craig is in his third season in charge of the Grizzlies. He should be a familiar name to some Chadron fans, as he served as an assistant coach at CSC for one season. 

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).