University of Redlands

Jose Ortega became the Head Softball Coach for the Bulldogs in October 2018.

2025
Won a program record 40 games (40-11). Won 16-straight and 13-straight games, the third and seventh-longest streaks in program history. Made it to the program's first super regional and Women's College World Series. He and his staff were named the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year for the third time.

Paige Messenlehner, Leila Jackson, Jenay Scott, and Katlyn Gandara were all named First-Team All-SCIAC; Brooklyn Bard, Paige Ellinger, and Kassidy Long made the second team. Messenlehner and Gandara were on the second and third team of the NFCA All-West Region.

A total of 22 single-season top-10 batting records were set. Team records include team batting average (.338 | 7th), hits (461 | 2nd), RBI (304 | 1st), doubles (88 | 1st), triples (16 | 7th), home runs (23 | 5th), stolen bases (148 | 1st), runs scored (346 | 1st), and walks (168 | 1st).

New single-season player records came from Messenlehner who set the record for at-bats (169) and Bard in stolen bases (41).

2024
Went 33-14 overall and 15-6 in SCIAC. The 33 wins are the most since 2013 and the fourth most all-time. They again finished in a three-way tie for first place in the regular season and won the SCIAC Tournament. They handed Linfield University their first loss of the season in the NCAA Tournament, but fell 3-1 in the best-of-five series.

Katlyn Gandara and Natalie Horton both made First-Team All-SCIAC and Paige Messenlehner was on the second team. Gandara was also named the SCAIC Player of the Year and also added Second-Team NFCA All-American and CSC Academic All-American honors.

Horton ended her career eighth in career batting average (.383), 10th in hits (163), seventh in runs scored (119), ninth in triples (10), ninth in walks (46), second in stolen bases (72), fourth in assists (294). She also finished the season eighth in at-bats (150), sixth in hits (64), seventh in triples (6), set the new program record for stolen bases (34), and sixth in assists (112).

Brooklyn Bard moved into fourth place in stolen bases (50) in only two seasons. She also finished third in single-season steals (28) and tied for first with a 1.000 fielding percentage while playing at least 50 percent of the games.

Gandara is now 10th in career strikeouts (104), first in saves (5), 10th in complete games (26), sixth in earned run average (2.32), 10th in innings pitched (307.2), ninth in appearances (63), eighth in wins (33), seventh in winning percentage (.673), 10th in hits allowed per seven innings (7.8), and seventh in shutouts (6). At the plate in 2024 she finished third in single-season batting average (.488), 12th in hits (60), fourth in RBI (53), and seventh in on-base percentage (.534). She also had a 1.000 fielding percentage and 17 wins, the ninth most.

Leila Jackson finished sixth in single-season putouts (310) and seventh in attempts (327).

As a team they posted the second-most hits (428), second in RBI (255), ninth in doubles (65), seventh in triples (16), shattered the school record for steals (137) by 48, second in runs (306), 10th in walks (117), and fifth in putouts (913).

2023
Finished 27-27 overall and 14-7 in SCIAC. They finished in a three-way tie for first place in the regular season and eventually won the SCIAC Tournament to advance the NCAA Regionals where they lost to Linfield University in a best-of-five series.

Katlyn Gandara was named First-Team All-SCIAC and Alexis Campos, Isabella Culp, Kalyn Kershner, and Natalie Horton made the second team.

Campos ended her career with the ninth-highest career slugging percentage (.580), 10th in putouts (412). She finished the season third all-time in single-season putouts (345), third in attempts (359), and 10th in opponent batting average (.262).

The team was ninth all-time with 65 doubles, tied for 10th in home runs (19), broke the single-season stolen bases record (89), finished fourth in walks (133), and seventh in putouts (895).

2022
The Bulldogs won their second-straight SCIAC regular season title and hosted the SCIAC Postseason Tournament where they lost in the finals to Chapman. Overall they posted a 24-14 overall record and were 15-6 in conference play. 

Five Bulldogs were named to the All-SCIAC teams: Collete Allen and Tyesen Gordon to the first team; Kalyn Kershner, Paige Messenlehner, and Danielle Stallings to the second team. Redlands' coaching staff was named the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year. 

The Bulldogs finished the season with 200 RBIs, tying for the 10th most in single-season program history, they also hit 79 doubles, the second most in program history, and their 35 home runs set a new program record. 

Along with the team records, multiple individuals made it into the top-10 records for a single-season. Alexis Campos and Gordon each had 14 doubles, tying them for ninth most in program history. Allen hit 12 home runs, the second most behind the 13 Amanda Lievanos in 2012. She also had a .824 slugging percentage, tying for third, and her .514 on-base percentage is tied for ninth.

Along with being named to the first team, Allen was also named the SCIAC Player of the Year for the second-straight season. She also became the first NFCA All-American since AJ Carrasco in 2016 and overall just the eighth Bulldog to become an All-American. 

Prior to his arrival, Ortega served as the Associate Head Coach at nearby Riverside City College to complete his 10-year tenure as a Tiger.  In addition to providing on-field instruction as a hitting and infield coach, he managed all aspects of offense, including coaching third base.  He brings experience with fundraising, practice planning, recruiting, and scouting, as well as teaching Kinesiology courses. 

With Ortega's involvement, RCC earned a spot in the playoffs each season and reached the Super Regionals seven out of 10 seasons.  The Tigers also advanced to the State Championships on three occasions and captured two Orange Empire Conference titles.

During the 2015 and 2016 seasons, Ortega worked as an assistant coach at UC Riverside, specifically as the hitting coach while helping to develop the infield and catchers.  With his contributions, the Highlanders broke multiple offensive school records, including batting average, hits, runs scored and, most significantly, wins.

Ortega began his coaching career in professional baseball as an infield coach with the Cleveland Indians.  After playing for the organization for two seasons, he moved into this new role, which in many ways redirected his career path.

As a student-athlete, he attended Riverside Community College before transferring to the University of San Diego, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration.  He later completed his master's in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University – Irvine.  He helped lead the RCC baseball program to two State Championships and landed on the OEC First Team.  At USD, Ortega contributed to the 2003 West Coast Conference Championship en route to First-Team All-Conference honors.

Outside of coaching, Ortega enjoys spending time with his wife Whitney and their two daughters.