Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

LA GRANDE – The Southern Oregon softball team got closer to locking down a playoff spot Friday, but not in the manner it would have preferred.

The Raiders wore two Cascade Conference losses at Eastern Oregon, 1-0 and 3-2. Their record dropped to 30-22 overall and 11-13 in the circuit, while the Mountaineers went to 18-25 and 9-17.

Elsewhere, however, Northwest Christian (12-32, 9-17) was swept by Corban and thereby eliminated from postseason contention (SOU owns tiebreakers over NCU and EOU), and College of Idaho (18-30, 9-17) split with Oregon Tech.

That means C of I is the only team with a shot at surpassing SOU for the fourth playoff spot. The Yotes can do that only by sweeping SOU in their final regular-season games Saturday – first pitch is at 10 a.m. Pacific Time – and hoping the Raiders lose two in their final regular-season games next Friday at Concordia.

SOU's bats weren't active enough to get the one win they needed at EOU. In Game 1, Lindsey Walchli shut them down with a three-hit shutout. EOU managed just five hits off Raider starter Brianne Craig (Rialto, Calif./Etiwanda) but scored the game's only run when Marisa Gonzalez drove home Cassie Wendt with a double in the fourth inning.

Craig struck out five in her complete-game performance. The Raiders put the potential tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position in their final at-bat before Walchli ended the contest with her second strikeout.

The Mountaineers plated all of their Game 2 runs in the first inning. SOU starter Cheyenne Bricker (Bieber, Calif./Big Valley) allowed five hits and three of them were during that frame, including RBI strokes by Shelby Baertsch, Gracie Flyg and Kaitlyn Reynolds.

Walchli went the distance again for EOU and yielded eight hits. Megan Winton (Davis, Calif./Davis Senior) and Gina Ayala (Norwalk, Calif./Santa Fe) had two apiece, while Kayla Douglas (Santa Rosa, Calif./Cardinal Newman) drove in SOU's first run on a fielder's choice in the second and Jazmin Ruvalcaba (Carson, Calif./Banning) drove in the second with a single in the sixth.

SOU left 10 runners on base, loading the bases with nothing to show for it in the fifth and putting two on with two out in the seventh. Ayala's flyout to left field ended the threat.