*NOTE: Tuesday's game times have been revised in anticipation of a thunderstorm.

NAIA OPENING ROUND – SOUTHERN OREGON BRACKET
All Games at U.S. Cellular Community Park | Live Streams ($8/day pass)
Monday, May 14:
Game 1 – (2) St. Francis (Ill.) vs. (3) Northwestern (Iowa), 11 a.m. – Live Stats
Game 2 – (1) Southern Oregon vs. (4) Simpson (Calif.), 1:30 p.m. – Live Stats

Tuesday, May 15:
Game 3 - G1 Winner vs. G2 Winner, 9 a.m. – Live Stats
Game 4 - G1 Loser vs. G2 Loser, 11:30 a.m. (loser eliminated) – Live Stats
Game 5 - G3 Loser vs. G4 Winner, 2 p.m. (loser eliminated) – Live Stats

Wednesday, May 16:
Game 6 - G3 Winner vs. G5 Winner, 11 a.m. – Live Stats
Game 7 - If necessary, 1:30 p.m. – Live Stats

COMPLETE OPENING ROUND SCHEDULE/RESULTS

ASHLAND – The No. 8-ranked Southern Oregon softball team's road back to the NAIA World Series goes through Medford, which at least makes for a less daunting sentence than Kentucky or Mississippi.

The Raiders are in the NAIA Opening Round for the third consecutive season, and they'll serve as a host when it takes place Monday through Wednesday for the first time since the 10-site, 40-team Opening Round format was adopted in 2013. Due to the NAIA's new rule that all host facilities must be equipped with field lights, the Raiders are partnering with the City of Medford to hold the four-team, double-elimination Southern Oregon Bracket at U.S. Cellular Community Park.

The Raiders (44-12 overall) are the top seed in the bracket by virtue of their top-10 ranking. They'll be joined by the No. 2 seed and 15th-ranked University of St. Francis (Ill.) Fighting Saints (38-7) of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference; the No. 3 seed Northwestern College (Iowa) Red Raiders (35-11) of the Great Plains Athletic Conference; and the No. 4 seed Simpson University (Calif.) Red Hawks (34-20) of the California Pacific Conference.

The bracket winner moves on to the 10-team NAIA World Series, May 25-31 in Clermont, Florida. St. Francis and Northwestern will open the tournament at 11 a.m. Monday, and SOU and Simpson will follow at 1:30 p.m. There'll be three games Tuesday starting at 11 a.m., and the final round on Wednesday – either one or two games – is also scheduled for an 11 a.m. first pitch.

Randall voted Academic All-District: SOU senior shortstop Kelsey Randall landed back on the Google Cloud Academic All-District IV team this weekend, as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Formerly known as the Capital One All-District Team, the honor is designed to recognize the top student-athletes in the country for their combined performance in the classroom and on the field. Randall is a business management major with a 3.6 GPA who was voted a CoSIDA Academic All-America second-team member last spring – the first in team history – and an Academic All-District women's soccer player last fall.

Before SOU swept through the Cascade Conference Tournament last week, Randall became the first player in conference history to be voted a four-time Gold Glove winner and first-team All-CCC player. In the second game of the tournament, she broke the CCC record for runs scored in a career (224) and tied her own single-season CCC record for triples (10). She's batting .376 this season, with a conference-record 50 stolen bases on 52 attempts, and previously broke the conference record for hits in a career (324).

Shimek named CCC Player of the Week: Hannah Shimek, SOU's freshman second baseman, was voted the CCC Player of the Week for the first time in her career based on her debut CCC Tournament performance. She went 6-for-10 with two runs scored and four RBI in three games, and in the championship-clinching win against Eastern Oregon she had a pair of run-scoring hits that tipped the scales in a 7-5 decision. She's batted .338 this season, and her 33 steals (on 35 tries) are the second-most in the conference behind Randall. As a team, the Raiders batted .400 (34-for-85) with eight extra-base hits in the conference tourney.

ABOUT THE BRACKET
#1 SOUTHERN OREGON | Ashland, Ore. |Cascade Conference (22-5, 1st)
Run Differential: +198 (56 games); +3.5/game
Last 10: 9-1
Longest Streak: W12
Notable: Having won 11 of their last 12, the Raiders appear to be playing their best at the right time in hopes of repeating last year's streak that landed them in the World Series. SOU appeared in its first Opening Round as a No. 3 seed in 2016, going 1-2 in the Columbia (Ky.) Bracket, and came back as a No. 2 seed last year in the Hattiesburg (Miss.) Bracket. There, the Raiders dropped their opener before winning four straight elimination games to move on. Prior to this stretch, they hadn't advanced past the CCC Tournament since appearing in the NAIA Regional Tournament every year from 2002-06. They boast the team's most formidable lineup to date with a collective .341 average and astonishing .406 on-base percentage. It's built around Randall and CCC Player of the Year Harlee Donovan, who's batting .449, leading the NAIA in walks (48), and just last week blasted her 20th home run in two years – a go-ahead grand slam against Corban – to tie the SOU career record. Their run-prevention efforts will revolve around sophomore ace Gabby Sandoval, who is 22-6 with a 2.01 ERA.

#2 ST. FRANCIS | Joliet, Ill. | Chicagoland Conference (21-1, 1st)
Run Differential: +148 (45 games); +3.3/game
Last 10: 9-1
Longest Streak: W16
Notable: The Fighting Saints are back in the Opening Round for the third time in four years and seeking their first title in that stretch. They've appeared in six NAIA World Series, but not since 1997. One of the most dominant pitchers in the NAIA, senior All-American Morghan Dieringer, gives them their best chance to get back. The two-time CCAC Pitcher of the Year is 22-2 with a 1.25 ERA, 210 strikeouts in 168 2/3 innings and a .196 opponents' average. Behind her, the Fighting Saints are 22-1 since April 10, having allowed more than two runs just three times in that span. Their lineup ranks 14th in the NAIA in slugging percentage (.502), and sophomore slugger Kayla Garcia leads with way with a .418 average and 14 home runs, the eighth-most in the nation.

#3 NORTHWESTERN | Orange City, Iowa | GPAC (15-5, 3rd)
Run Differential: +100 (46 games); +2.2/game
Last 10: 7-3
Longest Streak: W9
Notable: The Red Raiders have advanced to the World Series twice, in 1997 and 2002, but are in the Opening Round for the first time following a wild run through the GPAC Tournament. They visited regular-season champion Midland (Neb.) for a best-of-three series to decide the title and won the first and third games of the set – 1-0 in 10 innings (a game in which they didn't tally a hit) and 2-0 in nine innings, ultimately sweating out 26 innings in one day. By the numbers, they'll feature the best one-two pitching punch in the bracket with freshman Emma Schnell (17-4, 1.82 ERA) and senior Kayla Tindall (17-6, 1.85 ERA). Between them, they've tossed 41 complete games. Their lineup has only produced at a .278 clip, but they've hit the third-most home runs in the NAIA (one per game), led by Cheyenne Wilcke's 12, and senior Jensen Boger is batting a team-best .345 with 11 doubles.

#4 SIMPSON | Redding, Calif. | Cal Pac (18-2, 1st)
Run Differential: +75 (54 games); +1.4/game
Last 10: 8-2
Longest Streak: W10
Notable: After posting a 16-18 mark in nonleague play – including 0-3 against Southern Oregon and 2-7 against the Cascade Conference overall – the Red Hawks went on to dominate the Cal Pac again for their seventh consecutive regular-season tournament title to go with a tournament championship. They're in the Opening Round for the third year in a row and the fourth time since it originated, and have made previous World Series trips in 2011, '14 and '16. Last year, they were two wins away from returning but lost to eventual champion Oklahoma City in an Opening Round final. Their lineup, which batted .343 with a .426 OBP, features 2017 Cal Pac Player of the Year Madison Wright (.425, 23 XBH); 2018 Cal Pac Player of the Year  Mia Olvera (.456, 45 RBI); and one of the top freshmen in the country, Mazzie Davies (.474, 18 doubles). Their pitching success will depend on another freshman, Sydney Moorhead (18-5, 2.68 ERA).