11 a.m. / 1 p.m. Friday – Northwest Christian at SOU (DH)
11 a.m. / 1 p.m. Saturday – Northwest Christian at SOU (DH)
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Due to rain in the afternoon forecast, the start of third-ranked Southern Oregon's Cascade Conference series against Northwest Christian has been moved up to an 11 a.m. first pitch on Friday.

SOU (21-4 overall, 8-1 CCC) and the Beacons (4-13, 1-5) will attempt to get in all four of their scheduled contests, also starting Saturday's doubleheader at 11 a.m. Winners of nine of their last 10 overall and coming off a 4-0 weekend against No. 9 Oregon Tech, the Raiders need a sweep of the CCC portion of the series to force a first-place tie with No. 14 Corban (21-5, 11-1) going into the teams' matchup in Salem next week.

SANDOVAL SLINGING: SOU hasn't produced a CCC Pitcher of the Year since 2004, but to this point Gabby Sandoval has been the most dominant pitcher in the conference if not the country. She's fresh off her fourth CCC Pitcher of the Week award and first NAIA Pitcher of the Week recognition, bringing a 14-1 record, a 1.19 ERA and some eye-popping stats into the weekend:

• In her last 14 conference starts dating back to last season, she's given up nine earned runs over 99 innings – the equivalent of a 0.63 ERA. She's completed all 14 games.
• When Sandoval set SOU's wins record last season, she had an opponents' batting average of .247; this year, it sits at .174. Oregon Tech came into last weekend with a .368 team average before hitting .149 against Sandoval.
• She's yielded no earned runs in nine of 13 starts this season and given up two or fewer runs while going at least five innings 44 times in her three-year SOU career.
• She's one of five pitchers in the NAIA with at least 14 wins. Of the 10 other pitchers who have thrown at least 90 innings, only one has a better ERA.

SHORT HOPS:

• Harlee Donovan set SOU's single-season home run record with 12, but the rest of the team combined to add just six from three individuals. Without Donovan, this year's Raiders already have 13 home runs from nine different players, led by Allie Stines' four.
• The Raiders enter the weekend 14th nationally in batting average (.354) and 21st in runs per game (6.9). Defensively, they've committed 17 fewer errors (26) than their opponents (43) and allowed 16 fewer unearned runs (32 to 16).
• Lauren Quirke's .483 average is the best in the CCC among those with at least 40 at-bats and she brings a nine-game hitting streak into the weekend. SOU's single-season record for average is .463 (Meghan Laughlin, 2009).
• The Raiders already have eight individual four-hit games this season (Quirke 2, Stines 2, Hannah Shimek 2, Avery Morehead-Hutsell, Katrina Winterburn). Over the previous three years combined, they had five.
• When the Raiders lead after four innings, they're 18-0 this season and 89-2 since the start of 2016. They're outscoring opponents 84-27 combined over the first three innings.

ABOUT NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN:

• The Beacons had lost nine in a row before splitting a four-game series with Providence (Mont.) last week. They went 6-21 in the CCC last season.
• They're operating under a first-year head coach, Katie Duroe. She's relying on a sophomore pitcher, Emma Jegtvig (3-6, 3.54 ERA), to keep competitive an NCU lineup that hits a collective .263. Freshman Grants Pass product Jordan Kuykendall (.333, 5 runs) and senior Jessica Garner (.327, 14 stolen bases) are the offensive catalysts.
• SOU is 55-12 all-time against the Beacons, swept a three-game series last season in Eugene and has won 13 of the last 14 matchups overall.