U of R softball team out to prove that 2025 trip to NCAA D-3 Elite Eight was no fluke

REDLANDS, Calif. -- The 2025 edition of the University of Redlands softball team produced a record number of wins (40), a super-regional championship and its first-ever berth in the NCAA Div. III national championship.

This season with several returning players who contributed to that season, the Lady Bulldogs are already off to a great start with a 29-4 record through 33 games and a No. 7 national ranking.

Redlands hopes to extend its in-season win streak to 20 with a win at Chapman University on April 23.

It starts with senior right-hander Katelyn Gandara who leads the team in hitting as well as pitching, assisted by fellow seniors Jenay Scott, Brooklyn Bard. Adyson Kim and Redlands High graduate Maya Holshoe.

Redlands has a 2.5 game lead in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 14-1 record with Chapman University second at 9-3 and University of LaVerne third at 7-5 with six games remaining in the regular season.

Gandara has been a beast at the plate this season, hitting .486 in 33 games as a designated player and pitcher with 13 doubles, three home runs and 40 runs batted in. In the circle she is 15-1 in 21 appearances with eight complete games and a 1.66 earned run average.

The Whittier resident and La Serna High graduate was the National Fastpitch Coaches Association national player of the week in March, going 3-0 with zero runs scored and allowing just 10 hits while getting seven hits in 10 at bats with two doubles, a home run and nine RBI.

In 2025, Gandara made the Softball College World Series all-tournament team after leading Redlands to a 2-0 win over Texas Lutheran in the double elimination tournament, giving up four hits in the circle and driving in the only two runs of the game. Redlands later fell to Linfield University of Oregon, 9-1, in an elimination game.

She was all-SCIAC first team in 2025, the SCIAC pitcher of the year in 2024 and an NFCA second-team all-American. As a freshman in 2023, Gandara was SCIAC pitcher of the year and first-team all-conference.

Gandara currently ranks No. 1 in the conference in slugging percentage, RBI, doubles and sacrifice flies and is also No. 1 in pitching victories and No. 3 in earned run average. Her record in the circle in four seasons to date is 63-20.

Scott has contributed a .454 average in 32 games with 44 hits and 25 RBI. Bard is hitting .426 in 33 games with 42 hits, 32 steals and 38 runs scored. Holshoe is batting .348 with 24 RBI. Kim is hitting .326 with 26 RBI. Junior Leila Gomez, a graduate of Aquinas High in San Bernardino, is batting .400 with 19 steals. Sophomore Avery Provenzano has driven in 26 runs with a .305 batting average. As a team, the Bulldogs are hitting .346.

Backing up Gandara’s strong pitching is a freshman Caitlynn Griffith with a 7-0 record in 15 appearances, mostly in relief. She has two saves with 43 strikeouts in 40 innings. Junior Paige Ellinger is 5-3 in the circle with a 3.23 ERA in 40 innings.

Defensively, the Bulldogs have a .962 percentage with only 36 errors in 962 chances in the field.

Redlands resumes its season on Thursday, April 23, at home with a 3 p.m. SCIAC game against 24 th -ranked Chapman University (21-7) followed by a doubleheader at Chapman on April 25. The Bulldogs close out the regular season with an away game at Pomona-Pitzer on May 1 and a doubleheader at home against the same team on May 2 at noon and 2 p.m.

Head Coach Jose Ortega and his staff have led a team resurgence that started after the COVID-19 lockdown. Over the past five seasons (2022-2026) Redlands has produced a record of 153 wins and 60 losses overall.