NORMAN, Okla. – Omaha softball saw its historic 2025 season come to an end following a 4-0 loss to (2) California Saturday night in an NCAA tournament elimination game in the Norman Regional at Love's Field, the home of host (1) Oklahoma.
 
The Mavericks (40-13) close out another successful campaign that saw Omaha lose back-to-back games just once all year, win a share of the Summit League regular season title for the first time in program history, take home its third straight Summit League Tournament title and also win at least one game in the NCAA Championship for the third straight season.
 
Meanwhile, (2) California (37-20) – which handed Omaha both its losses in the regional – now moves on to face Oklahoma (46-7) in the Norman Region final Sunday, May 18 at 1 p.m. CT. Cal – which lost to Oklahoma, 11-2, in five innings earlier Saturday – would have to beat the Sooners twice to win the regional championship.
 
The Golden Bears jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Acacia Anders hit a two-out solo homer to right field to give the at-large ACC member an early advantage. It stayed 1-0 until the fourth, when Kaylee Pond led off the inning with a single, moved to second on a groundout, third on a passed ball and came home on a two-out, RBI single by Mia Phillips to make it 2-0 Cal.
 
After Omaha went down in order in the bottom of the fourth, the game was then delayed for 65 minutes in the top of the fifth with the Golden Bears leading, 2-0.

The Mavericks' best chance to cut into the Cal lead came in the bottom of the fifth, when Ava Rongisch walked and Haley Wilwerding singled to put runners on first and second with one out. However, Golden Bear pitcher Miranda De Nava (13-5) got a pair of pop-ups to get out of the jam and keep Cal in front, 2-0.
 
Cal added an insurance run in the top of the sixth when Lagi Quiroga homered off Omaha reliever Alexis Wiggins with one out, putting the Golden Bears ahead, 3-0. Wiggins relieved starter Maddia Groff in the top of the fourth, with Groff (27-7) having allowed one run on two hits with two strikeouts and one walk in three innings of work.
 
The Golden Bears got one more run in the seventh courtesy of another solo homer, this one by Nailyn Marshall to lead off the inning, to put Cal up, 4-0, and close out the scoring. It marks just the sixth time in 53 games this season that Omaha was shut out by an opponent, two of which came at the hands of the Golden Bears.
 
The Mavericks had three hits in the loss, with Rylinn Groff, Wilwerding and Sammy Schmidt each getting a single for Omaha.
 
Wiggins worked the final four innings in the circle for the Mavericks, giving up three runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
 
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