SB | What a Team, What a Run, What a Year! Record-Breaking Season Comes to an End in Eugene Regional Finals

Sunday, May 17

Eugene, Ore.

4:30 PM

Saint Mary's College of California

42-16

Mississippi State

41-18

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Saint Mary's	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Mississippi State	2	0	0	0	0	3	X	5	9	1

SB | What a Team, What a Run, What a Year! Record-Breaking Season Comes to an End in Eugene Regional Finals

5/17/2026 7:46:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Postgame Press Conference

EUGENE, Ore. – The Saint Mary's softball team entered uncharted territory on Sunday at Jane Sanders Stadium, appearing in the program's first ever NCAA Regional Final. The Gaels battled valiantly, keeping the bats of the Mississippi State Bulldogs at bay for a majority of the game, but couldn't muster the offense to match their pitching and defense effort, falling 5-0. The Gaels' season has now come to a close, with an athletic department record of 42 wins amongst a plethora of other broken records throughout the historic campaign.

Offensive leaders throughout the season, Hannah Ferguson and Sam Buckley, were responsible for the lone two hits for the Gaels. Ferguson's first inning double went down as her 79th hit this season, tying the program single-season program hits record set by Jennifer Price in 2000. Sophomore pitcher Ella Thurman entered the game behind 2-0, but hung up zeroes in the second, third, fourth and fifth, before eventually giving up her first run in the sixth. Odhi Vasquez came on to close things out and did surrender a pair of runs, but retired the final three outs of the frame to put the final stamp on an incredible career in the circle.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Just three batters into the game, Mississippi State (41-18) took an early 2-0 lead on a two run home run. Ella Thurman came out of the bullpen for the Gaels (42-16) and retired 14 of the first 19 batters that she faced, keeping the deficit at two through five full innings. In the sixth, the Bulldogs would tack on three more. Odhi Vasquez retired the final three outs for Mississippi State, but the Gaels offense couldn't find a way to rally back, ultimately falling 5-0.

The Gaels put runners on base in five of the seven frames, and put runners in scoring position in the first, fourth and fifth. In the first inning, Hannah Ferguson doubled to right center, good for her program-record tying 79th hit of the season, and extending her team-best reached base streak to 16 straight games. Sam Buckley singled and moved up to second on an error in the fourth, but was stranded there. In the fifth, Kiah Silva and Tori Cervantes worked back-to-back walks, and Taylor Lane bunted both of them into scoring position, but those two would also be left on the basepaths.

GAME NOTES

With Hannah Ferguson tying the program single season hits record today, the Gaels have tied or broken 19 different program records this year. These include most wins in a single season, most ranked wins in a single season, longest win streak, the individual single season records for runs scored, hits, triples, RBI and wins (Ferguson owns the first three, Braxton Brown owns RBI, and Odhi Vasquez owns wins), and program career records for home runs (Sam Buckley), triples (Ferguson), stolen bases (Ferguson) and wins (Vasquez).
Ferguson was also the only player to record six hits in the Eugene Regional.
The Gaels joined BYU (2017 and 2021) as the only two West Coast Conference programs to make it to an NCAA Regional Final dating back to the first year the WCC began sponsoring the sport in 2014.
Ella Thurman put together her best outing against a ranked foe this year, surrendering just one earned run over 4.2 innings. Thurman also pitched against Texas A&M and Stanford this year.
The following Gael seniors will graduate ranked in the top-10 in program history a variety of categories: Victoria Castillo (10th in batting average), Taylor Lane (4th in RBI, t-9th in home runs, t-10th in walks), Tori Cervantes (9th in runs scored, t-3rd in triples), and Odhi Vasquez (6th in appearances, 8th in complete games, 3rd in shutouts, 7th in innings pitches, 6th in ERA, 2nd in strikeouts and most wins in program history).