SOU NOTES

ASHLAND – While snow falls on campus, the Southern Oregon softball team will head for sunny Tucson, Ariz., for six games this weekend at the 2012 Tucson Invitational.

Southern Oregon, 6-4 overall this season, will play Cornerstone at 9 a.m. on Friday and Olivet Nazarene at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Friday. Saturday's schedule will include an 11 a.m. game against Calumet College of St. Joseph, a 3:30 matchup with Trinity International and a 6 p.m. contest against Aquinas.

The Raiders finished last weekend's SOU Tournament with a 3-1 weekend mark, knocking off Great Falls twice and splitting with Simpson. Through the first 10 games, Southern Oregon has compiled a .308 team batting average and averaged 5.4 runs per contest. The Raider pitching staff has tallied a 3.45 earned run average.

Jessica Flores (Corning, Calif./Corning) has six hits in 10 at bats, while Stephanie Vandenbusch (Fremont, Calif./American) has a .440 batting average and Katie Moy (Oceanside, Calif./Vista)'s 13 hits lead the team. Irene Barrantes (Dos Palos, Calif./Dos Palos) leads the team with two home runs and three doubles and is hitting .367. Jordyn Kurtz (Tacoma, Wash./Stadium) leads the SOU pitching staff with three wins, while Chelsea Talbert (Sacramento, Calif./West Campus) has struck out 18 batters in 13.2 innings and leads the team with a 2.56 earned run average.

Southern Oregon head coach Kim Fritts saw a lot of positives in the way the Raiders played over the weekend.

“They had some great improvement from our first tournament,” Fritts said. “They keep building on different things, learning our teammates better. They're doing a better job of communication and putting the bat on the ball.”

The Tucson Invitational will be a new experience for the Raiders, as they will face all five of their opponents for the first time in program history. Olivet Nazarene leads the way, ranked 15th in the NAIA preseason poll after finishing the 2011 season with a 50-12 record and winning its second consecutive Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship.

Aside from Olivet Nazarene, which is 3-1 through four games this season, the Raiders' four other weekend opponents have yet to play in 2012. Fritts expects the trip to give SOU the opportunity to continue improving team chemistry both on and off the field while playing some tough teams.

“We're going to play some really good competition,” Fritts said. “We're taking a nice long bus trip, so the team bonding that's going to happen on this trip is going to be phenomenal for this team. They're going to spend a lot of time together, but also get to play some good competition in some nice warm weather to get us ready for conference play. This is our last weekend to kind of get fine-tuned and ready to go for conference.”