BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - A bittersweet end to a historic season for the Saint Mary's softball team. A program best 44 wins, back-to-back conference champions, hosting and winning the programs first Regional and Super Regional, and finally a World Series berth.
The Cardinals (44-7) finished their season with an early exit in the 2025 NCAA Division III College World Series, hosted by Illinois Wesleyan, as they fell 6-3 to the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets (40-13) in their second game.
It was both the program's first ever meeting.
"Sometimes it's not about winning it, it's about if you played the game the right way," said head coach John Tschida. "I thought throughout the entire year they played hard, griddy, practiced hard, and treated each other well."
Once again, the Cardinals started strong in the first inning, getting on the board early as Megan McGinnis opened with a double, followed by sacrifices from Abbie Stigler and Makayla Steffes to bring McGinnis home.
The Yellow Jackets quickly answered, loading the bases and using aggressive baserunning to steal home twice, taking a 2-1 lead by the end of the first inning.
In the top of the second, Naleyah Bork's single up the middle set the stage, and she was later driven in by Alex Gerber's perfectly placed shot down the left field line.
Just as the Cardinals evened the score in the top of the second, the Yellow Jacket's hit a two run homerun to jump to a 4-2 lead.
The team began to dig themselves into a hole as they struggled to maintain their pace of scoring a run each inning.
The Yellow Jackets managed another homerun in the fifth inning and scored again in the sixth as the score was 6-2 at the top of the seventh.
Saint Mary's caught some momentum late and when they needed it.
In the top of the seventh, the senior's Allison Ciero and Heather Nordlund put up two singles in their final at bats of their careers to put two on. Pitcher, Kenzie Gatz, singled to left field bringing home Ciero to score for the teams final time of the season.
Though the Cardinals couldn't maintain that momentum for the whole game, they finished their season, in the eyes of the Cardinal community, on a high note.
"I'm just grateful," said Ciero. "I never really expected to have this type of a career and with the teammates I got to meet in the process."
"From starting this program back up my freshman year with coach Tschida, to making it to the World Series my senior year, the team next year really has something to look forward to," said Nordlund.
She is right.
With a predominantly sophomore and junior heavy team, many familiar faces will be back for what could be another truly special run.