Southern Oregon University Athletics
This last weekend Raider softball finished their regular-season games at home with a complete sweep of Corban. Their sweep of Corban put the Raiders on a 17-game-winning streak, which is the second-longest in team history. The Raiders finished second in the conference. Because OIT secured the regular-season conference champs title, they will host the conference tournament this upcoming weekend in Klamath Falls. The teams that will be in attendance are SOU, OIT, British Colombia, COI, Corban, and Eastern Oregon.
However, both OIT and SOU will each host an NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round. The Raiders will host at Lithia and Driveway Fields May 16-18th.
Not only did the Raiders finish their last regular-season games this past weekend, but they also recognized senior outfielder Erika Marquez. Marquez has been a part of the Raider family for the past four years. Hometown for the senior is Tucson, Arizona. Over her career at SOU, Marquez has been named an Academic All-Cascade Conference team twice and a Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete. She’s had a .301 hitting percentage over her four years, a .953 fielding percentage, and has scored 40 runs so far for the program.
Game 1 Highlights:
- Ashton Cathey had three hits while Riley Donovan, Piper Love, and Phelicity Fa’aita each had two.
- Love had an inside-the-park home run.
- SOU had 13 hits total.
- Donovan and Lindsey Stripling led in RBIs for three each.
- Deja Acosta scored two runs.
- Cayla Williams had the pitching win. She faced 22 batters and forced 12 groundouts in six innings.
Final Score: 9-1
Game 2 Highlights:
- Donovan and Love both had two runs.
- Williams had three RBIs while Cathey and Acosta had two each.
- Fa’aita led with three hits.
- SOU had 14 total hits.
- Love, Williams, and Sarah Kerling had three position-outs a piece.
- Katie Machado locks down pitching win. She faced 20 batters and had nine flyouts, five groundouts, and one strikeout.
Final Score: 11-3
Game 3 Highlights:
- Acosta led the game with three hits while Cathey and Kerling both had two.
- Cathey and Donovan each scored twice.
- SOU had 11 hits.
- Kerling led with four RBIs from her inside the park grand slam. Cathey had three from her home run blast.
- Mayze Menefee receives pitching win after three innings, but she split the game with Williams. Combined total they faced 33 batters.
Final Score: 9-6
Game 4 Highlights:
- Donovan led the game with six RBIs from a home run and two doubles.
- Acosta had three runs and Sammie Pemberton had two.
- Pemberton had two hits.
- SOU had nine hits to match their nine runs.
- Williams had nine position outs.
- Machado secured the second win in the series with only 63 pitches. She had five strikeouts, five groundouts, and four flyouts.
Final Score: 9-0
For a play-by-play from each game, follow these links Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4.
The Raiders are slated to play next on May 6th at 4:30 PM against either Corban or Eastern Oregon. You can find the CCC schedule here, or you can follow the updates for the Raiders through their schedule here. Live updates of the game can be found here come Friday.
