The Lady Lions entered the 2025-26 season with high expectations after making the regional final in the 2024-25 postseason for the first time since the 2023-24 season.
By the end of the 2026 regular season, Southeastern softball delivered one of the best seasons in school history while establishing nationwide records, highlighted by having the longest win streak.
After the season, Head Coach Rick Fremin led the team to finish with a 46-16 overall record and capture the team’s first regular-season Southland Conference title.
With a 25-game winning streak, SLU led the nation with the most consecutive wins and showed they were a premier team to compete with.
During the fall, the Lady Lions were picked as a preseason favorite in the Southland conference poll, which raised expectations for the 2026 season.
Southeastern responded to the preseason ranking with strong pitching from sophomore Hallie Burns, senior Macie LaRuse and graduate student Cera Blanchard.
The rest of the Southeastern pitching staff included freshman Katherine Thiessen, freshman Bre Clark, sophomore Celia Lamkin and senior Tyler Oubre.
Blanchard had the best ERA at 1.20 this season, as Burns finished the season with a 20-5 win-loss record with a 1.68 ERA.
Throughout the season, the pitching staff established itself as one of the best in the SLC and Division I softball with a 1.70 ERA.
The Lady Lions dominated conference opponents by only losing three conference games in the regular season, taking the SLC title with a 24-3 conference record.
They shut out several SLC teams during their conference series against East Texas A&M, HCU, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, McNeese, Lamar, and UIW.
Among the roster, sophomore Shelby Morris had the highest batting average of .396 and a .446 on-base percentage.
Morris was a major key player who dominated the field with 84 hits that allowed her to score 60 runs and collect 33 RBIs.
Another key player on home plate was senior Maria Detillier, with a batting average of .307 with 189 at-bats and led the team with 56 RBIs.
Besides them, both senior Cydnee Schneider and junior Brilee Ford became top hitters on the roster as well, with Schneider having a batting average of .386 and Ford having a .360 batting average.
For the postseason, the team hosted an SLC tournament in Hammond, where Lamar eliminated SLU to advance to the SLC Championship against McNeese in Lake Charles.
Despite falling short of the SLC championship, SLU’s historic resume led the Green and Gold to be invited to the Tuscaloosa Regional.
Before heading into the Tuscaloosa Regional, the university celebrated the softball team’s accomplishments In the Celebration of Champions, where Coach Fremin explained why they are one of the most unique teams in America.
“Our staff and players have worked extremely hard this season and we wanted to create as many memories from this year as we can; after taking pictures from big wins and after many entertaining bus trips with phenomenal personalities, that’s what makes us different as one of the most unique teams in the country,” Fremin said.
Last time the Lady Lions advanced to the Tuscaloosa Regional was in 2024 when they eliminated Clemson before they lost to No. 14 Alabama in the finale.
This year, in the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional, SLU faced Belmont on the opening day, which resulted in a pitching duel before falling short by two single RBIs.
Junior shortstop Chloe Magee and senior third baseman Maria Detillier managed to get the Lady Lions on base but were left stranded by Belmont’s pitching staff.
Southeastern lost to Belmont 2-0, which moved them into an elimination round against USC Upstate.
Junior infielder Katie Lott, Senior catcher Cydnee Schneider, senior outfielder Kailey Dixon, and graduate outfielder Ka’Lyn Watson hit single RBIs to get Southeastern on the scoreboard, but it wasn’t enough.
USC Upstate maintained the lead to finish the game 5-4. This loss marked the end of Southeastern’s record-breaking season.
