![\"Victoria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/RPE-L-COLSB-CBU-0510-02.jpg\")
Victoria Macias, right, holds up the WAC Tournament Champions sign after the California Baptist University softball team defeated Tarleton State in the championship game. (Courtesy of Matthew Horrocks, CBU Athletics)<\/p>\nThe California Baptist University softball team had to work overtime Saturday, but the Lancers eventually completed the job.<\/p>\n
Tarleton State knocked off the Lancers in the first game of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship series, but California Baptist bounced back and cruised to an 8-2 victory to secure the program\u2019s first NCAA Division I Tournament bid.<\/p>\n
Victoria Macias, right, holds up the WAC Tournament Champions sign after the California Baptist University softball team defeated Tarleton State in the championship game. (Courtesy of Matthew Horrocks, CBU Athletics)<\/p>\n
Miranda De Nava, a sophomore pitcher who graduated from Riverside Poly High School, tossed a two-hitter inside the circle and earned her 19th win. Senior center fielder Makayla Medellin sparked the offense with a two-run home run in the opening inning.<\/p>\n
Medellin, a Yorba Linda native and transfer from Long Beach State, was chosen the WAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what, you have to dream big. You have to be crazy, and you have to be crazy enough to believe it,\u201d Medellin told ESPN following the game. \u201cThis team is. \u2026 We know what we are, and I think we\u2019re going to bring that (mentality) into the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
The WAC Tournament championship and historic NCAA Tournament bid comes in Brandon Telesco\u2019s first season at the helm.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty emotional right now. I\u2019m an ugly crier, so I hate that this is on TV,\u201d Telesco joked while fighting back tears. \u201cThe kids are unbelievable, and I\u2019m proud of them. They bought in from day one. They said they wanted to do this, and they gave us their all every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Telesco previously was an assistant coach at Cal, and California Baptist is his first head coaching job at the Division I level.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe in the off-season I\u2019ll think about what it means to me personally,\u201d Telesco said. \u201cBut this isn\u2019t about me. It\u2019s about my staff, the players, the administration that gave me an opportunity and the players that give me an opportunity to coach them.\u201d<\/p>\n
CBU had an interesting path to the championship. The Lancers earned the No. 1 seed after winning the regular-season title and opened the tournament with a 3-1 win over No. 4 Utah Valley University. CBU and Tarleton State were knotted at 3 after the opening inning of the semifinal game Thursday when a lightning storm in Stephenville, Texas, caused a three-hour delay.<\/p>\n
Medellin hit a three-run blast when play resumed, sparking a five-run second inning as the Lancers went on to a 12-4 victory.<\/p>\n
Tarleton State, the host school, did not go down without a fight. The No. 2-seeded Texans rebounded with an 8-4 victory over Utah Valley to secure a spot in the championship series. Tarleton State beat the Lancers 6-4 to force the \u201cif-necessary game.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_0290.jpg\")
The California Baptist University softball team won the WAC Tournament and secured the program\u2019s first Division I tournament bid. (Courtesy of Matthew Horrocks, CBU Athletics)<\/p>\n
CBU (43-17) shook off the loss and grabbed a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Medellin drove an 0-2 pitch the opposite way and lined a two-run homer off the scoreboard in right field. Victoria Macias later added an RBI single to extend the Lancers\u2019 lead.<\/p>\n
Tarleton State (38-23) got one back in the second, when Braylin Pannill launched a towering homer to left field off of De Nava.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
CBU batted around and scored five runs during the bottom of the third inning to extend that lead. The Lancers loaded the bases with one out, and Ashlee Annett and Sydney Peterson each singled home a run. Kimberly Westover came off the bench with two outs and the still bases loaded, and she delivered the knockout blow with a triple down the right-field line that cleared the bases.<\/p>\n
That was more than enough support for De Nava, the recently crowned WAC Pitcher of the Year who arrived from Cal with Telesco this season. De Nava only registered one strikeout, but she recorded 18 outs through the air, including the final 15.<\/p>\n
De Nava, Kenzie Farrier-Pilon and Peterson were chosen the all-tournament team.<\/p>\n
The Lancers will find out which NCAA regional tournament they will play at when the brackets are released Sunday at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to celebrate this and worry about our opponent tomorrow when we figure out where we\u2019re going,\u201d Telesco said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California Baptist University softball team had to work overtime Saturday, but the Lancers eventually completed the job.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1327,14502,127],"class_list":["post-309191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-college-sports","tag-softball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}