ABILENE - The ACU softball team finished its 2025 regular season with a 5-0 loss to No. 24 Grand Canyon on Saturday.
The loss drops the Wildcats to 15-37 overall and 11-13 in the WAC. The Wildcats finished in a tie for fourth place in the conference standings, but through tiebreaking procedures take the 5th seed for the
WAC Tournament in Riverside, Calif.
ACU will play 8th-seeded Utah Valley in a single-elimination game on Wednesday, May 7, at 3 p.m. CT. The winner advances to the double elimination portion of the tournament and will play the 4th seed later Wednesday night at 9 p.m. CT.
The Wildcats' series against Grand Canyon wrapped up a week where they played four games against nationally ranked opponents -- at No. 11 Texas Tech on Tuesday, and three versus the No. 24 Lopes on Friday and Saturday.
ACU went down 1-0 on Saturday, but held GCU to that lone run until the 5th inning. The Lopes sent seven batters to the plate where they turned three singles and a walk into three runs to lead 4-0.
GCU tacked on a run off
Ella Beeman in the sixth on a RBI double down the left field line.
The Wildcats' first batter of the game --
Taylor Bachmeyer -- hit a single up the middle, but that was ACU's only hit until the sixth.
Emily Berryhill singled through the left side, but could not advance any further.
Starting pitcher
Lina Russo, one of eight seniors honored after the game, threw 5.0 innings where she allowed three earned runs, walked four and struck out a pair.
The ACU defense turned its 16th double play of the season when third baseman
Miranda Lista snagged a fading ground ball and threw to
Elizabeth Schaefer at first base to get the batter. Schaefer then tagged out a GCU runner who thought the ball had gone foul and started retreating to first.
Wednesday's game will be ACU's first in the postseason since 2022 when the Wildcats went 0-2 in the WAC Tournament. ACU won two-of-three games against Utah Valley in Orem, UT, on April 4-5. The Wildcats' two wins were each by one run -- 3-2 and 7-6 -- and both starts by Russo.
Valerie Ornelas, Emily Beryhill, Bachmeyer,
Isabel Martinez,
Mckenley Clark, Russo and
Catrin Hoffman were all honored after Saturday's game for a Senior Day ceremony. Due to the conference tournament, four of those seniors will miss their on-campus commencement next week. ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert and vice president for athletics
Zack Lassiter were on-hand to present those four women with their diplomas.
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