Lori Perez completed her 13th season as Sacramento State’s head coach in 2026, and 22nd on the Hornets’ coaching staff.
Perez has 26 years of experience at Sacramento State, including four seasons as a player (1999-02), nine years as an assistant coach (2005-13), and 13 seasons as the head coach (2014-pres.).
During Perez’s 13-year tenure as head coach, the Hornets have combined for a 338-288-2 overall record and a 131-77 mark in the Big Sky Conference. That includes a pair of Big Sky championships in 2018 and 2023.
In fact, the Hornets have finished third place or better in the league standings in 11 of her 12 completed seasons at the helm (2020 was not finished because of the pandemic). That includes a second place finish each of the last three years (2024-26).
Most recently, the 2026 squad finished 33-20 overall, 9-6 in conference, and the 33 victories were the most in 20 years. In addition, the Hornets posted a .623 winning percentage (fourth best in the Div. I era), lost more than two straight games just once, and posted a nine-game winning streak.
Sacramento State has registered at least 27 wins in five consecutive seasons, and seven of the last eight. The 2023 squad finished 27-20 overall, 10-5 in the Big Sky, and claimed a share of the conference’s regular season title.
Perez’s vision for the program became reality in 2018 when the Hornets won both the Big Sky Conference’s regular season and tournament championships while qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. Sacramento State, which finished that season 31-20 overall and 14-7 in league, won its first Big Sky title since the league began sponsoring softball in 2013. In addition, the NCAA Tournament appearance was the program’s first since 2008, and the fourth since Sacramento State joined the Div. I ranks in 1990 (1993, 1995, 2008, 2018).
The 2018 season also marked the Hornets’ first league title since the program won the Pacific Coast Softball Conference title in 2008. For her efforts, Perez was named the Big Sky’s Coach of the Year.
Since Perez became head coach, the team has racked up 93 all-conference selections. Among those were four right-handers who received Big Sky Pitcher of the Year accolades - Marissa Bertuccio in 2022 and 2023, Savanna Corr in 2019, Celina Matthias in 2016 and 2018, Caitlin Brooks in 2014 and 2015.
This past season (2026), the team placed seven players on the all-conference team, which included Player of the Year Lafulafu Malepeai, and Newcomer of the Year Madi Mendoza.
Academically, the softball team, at the end of the 2026 spring semester, had a 3.24 team grade point average. In addition, of the 58 players that have expired their eligibility during Perez’s tenure as head coach, all 58 have graduated.
During her time as an assistant coach, Perez was influential in numerous areas of the program, including recruiting, serving as the team’s pitching coach and first-base coach, working with the catchers and infielders, as well as many other duties.
In her 22 seasons on the coaching staff, Sacramento State has combined for a 251-142 conference record, good for a .639 winning percentage.
Perez oversaw the pitchers from 2005-2024, and during that time, Hornet hurlers accounted for 25 all-conference selections. At least one pitcher earned some form of all-league recognition in 19 of those 20 seasons, and the staff led the Big Sky in ERA in 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024, while finishing second three straight years from 2015-17, and 2021-22.
A Sacramento State player has been named all-region eight of the last 12 completed years. That includes a program-record three in 2022 - Lewa Day (2nd team), Marissa Bertuccio (3rd team) and Lexie Webb (3rd team). In fact, Bertuccio received all-region accolades three straight seasons (2022-24), becoming just the second Hornet to accomplish the feat during the program’s Div. I era. This past season, Malepeai followed her Big Sky Player of the Year honor with all-West Region accolades.
Prior to her coaching stint at Sacramento State, Perez was the lead instructor at Kelly Jackson’s All-American Softball School in West Sacramento, Calif., from 2003-04. She also spent time as the head varsity coach at Center High School (Antelope, Calif.) for two years (2003-04).
During her playing days, she was a four-year starter for the Hornets and remains the program leader in career fielding assists (495). The Petaluma, Calif., native appeared in 196 games (including 190 starts) at second base, shortstop and third base during her four-year tenure as a student-athlete at Sacramento State.
A team captain during both her junior and senior seasons, she earned all-Big West Conference honors in 2001 and started all but one game during her final two years with the program.
Perez, who resides in Sacramento, graduated from Sacramento State in the fall of 2002 with a degree in communication studies, and completed her master’s degree in recreation administration in the fall of 2011. Perez has two children, Caroline and Jimmy.
