SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos softball team (42-21) is making its third NCAA Division II West Super Regional appearance this week, hosting Western Washington in a best-of-three series with a noon start time on Thursday, May 15 and an 11 a.m. start on Friday, May 16. If the series is split at that point, the teams will play a deciding game at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Friday, May 16 to determine who will advance to the NCAA Division II World Series on May 22-28 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

LAST TIME OUT

• CSUSM played three elimination games including taking down No. 2-seeded and host San Francisco State twice on Saturday by scores of 3-2 and 16-4 (five innings). 
• Prior to that, the Cougars opened the tournament with a 3-2 victory over Biola on Thursday, May 8 before falling 13-9 to SF State on Friday, May 9. In its first elimination game, CSUSM took down Biola for a second time by score of 5-2. 
• Paige Donnelly and Madison Waymire led the CSUSM offense at the West Regional, hitting .579 and .529, respectively, while combining for 20 hits, three doubles, two home runs, 10 RBIs and 15 runs. 

BY THE NUMBERS 

• At the West Regional, CSUSM dominated its opponents with the following stats: .348-to-.244 batting average, 36-to-23 runs, 48-to-31 hits, .464-to-.315 slugging percentage, .477-to-.374 on-base percentage and 4.03-to-7.14 ERA. 
• The Cougars' batting average continues to be the best in the CCAA at .313 and ranking fourth in the West Region behind three GNAC schools.
• CSUSM has tallied a West Region-best 538 hits this season, ranking seventh in Division II.  
• The Cougars are supporting the third-highest on-base percentage in the West Region at .390. 
• CSUSM has racked up 262 RBIs this season, the third most in the West Region. 
• CSUSM's 202 walks this season rank second in the West and seventh in the nation. 
• Jillian Albayati ranks second in the nation with 159 assists (one less than national leader Reece Anderson of Drury). 
• Jayline Sloss' 32 starts this season rank second in the West Region behind Cal State Dominguez Hills' Ashley Ogata's 45. 
• Paige Donnelly has accumulated 78 hits so far this season, ranking third in the West Region while Madison Waymire's 68 rank 12th. 
• Waymire's 54 runs are the third most in the West Region. 
• Sloss has gotten 42 batters to strikeout looking, the most in the West Region, while recording 116 total strikeouts (third most in West Region). 

WEST SUPER REGIONAL PREVIEW

• This marks CSUSM's third consecutive appearance in the NCAA West Super Regional.
• The Cougars hosted the 2022 NCAA Division II Softball West Super Regional where they fell in three games to Cal State Dominguez Hills. 
• Last season, the Cougars fell to then-No. 13 Western Washington on Championship Saturday in Bellingham. The Vikings went on and were crowned NCAA Division II National Runner-Up after falling to UT Tyler. 
• For softball, the NCAA splits each regional into two pods with the winner of each pod advancing to the West Super Regional, which features a best-of-three series against each other the following week to determine the regional champion.
• CSUSM won its pod with a 4-1 record while WWU posted a 3-0 record in its pod to advance. 
• The Vikings opened their NCAA West Regional Pod with an 8-0 victory (6 innings) over Concordia University Irvine before recording a 2-1 eight-inning win against Cal State East Bay to get to the championship game. Facing the Pioneers again, WWU took down East Bay 6-2 to advance to the Super Regional. 
• The last three of four teams to emerge from the D2 West Region and advance to the World Series as one of the eight finalists have gone on to be the NCAA Division II Runner-Up – Biola in 2021, CSUDH in 2022 and WWU 2024. 
• The Division II Super Regionals consist of six top-seeded teams, four second-seeded teams, three third-seeded teams, two fourth-seeded teams and one seventh-seeded team.
• CSUSM is 2-3 in the all-time series against WWU. 
• The Cougars faced WWU four times last season, falling 1-0 to the Vikings at the Tournament of Champions in Turlock before going 1-2 in the West Regional. CSUSM first faced the Vikings in 2020 (before COVID shut everything down) at the CUI Kickoff Classic where the Cougars took down WWU 6-1. 
• WWU has the best batting average (.336) and the second best ERA (1.93) in the West Region. 
• The Vikings' defense is also very solid, boasting a .973 fielding percentage which ranks 13th in the nation. 
• Maleah Andrew was named the D2 CCA West Region Player of the Year after leading the West with a .475 batting average, 19 doubles and 59 runs. 

  
2025 OUTLOOK

• CSUSM was picked to finish first in the 2025 CCAA Preseason Softball Coaches Poll. 
• The Cougars' roster of 26 consists of 17 returners, one transfer and eight freshman. 
• Athletically, the Cougars are made up of four redshirt seniors, six seniors, three juniors, five sophomores and eight freshman. 
• The Cougars' 53-game schedule includes 28 home contests and 25 road games.

THE ROBINSON FILE

• Head Coach A.J. Robinson was promoted to the top spot on July 31, 2024. 
• As the program's assistant coach from 2022-24, Robinson helped guide CSUSM to three NCAA Division II West Regional appearances, an NCAA National Championship appearance, a West Regional Championship, a CCAA Regular-Season Championship and a CCAA Tournament Championship.
• For the 2021 season, Robinson was a volunteer assistant coach at San Diego State and helped the Aztecs to an overall record of 28-16.
• Robinson's first stint at CSUSM was as a volunteer assistant coach from 2018-20 where he was named CSUSM Athletics' Volunteer Assistant Coach of the Year in 2020.
• Robinson was the founder and president of The Factory Softball Club in San Diego until 2024. In 2018 and 2019, he and his coaching staff earned West Region Travel Ball Coaching Staff of the Year honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA).