GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The No. 1-ranked Southern Oregon softball team bumped its record to 23-3 overall and 9-0 in Cascade Conference play Saturday, finishing off a four-game sweep of Providence (Mont.) by scores of 7-3 and 11-2.
Senior All-Americans
Lauren Quirke and
Allie Stines both homered for the Raiders, who extended their winning streak to 13 games to match their longest since the 2005 club won 15 straight. The team record, established in 2004, is 17.
Senior pitcher
Gabby Sandoval improved to 13-0 and sophomore
Jordyn Ragan went to 5-1 in the circle after both collected their second wins of the series. Sandoval threw all seven innings in Game 1, yielding seven hits with three strikeouts and a walk, and Ragan took the first four of the six-inning finale, allowing two hits while working around five walks.
Abbie Lewis had a pair of hits in the opener and scored the first run on
Allie Stines' double in the first inning. In the third, a Stines walk and an error led to another run before
Paige Leeper's double made it 3-0.
SOU's three-run sixth was started by a
Mackenzie Evangelisti double and an
Olivia Mackey single, and capped by Lewis' two-run hit. Quirke led off the seventh with a solo blast, her second of the series and third of the season.
The Raiders struck for five runs in the first inning of Game 2, when Stines launched a two-run home run and
Rylan Austin laced an RBI double. Stines had an RBI double of her own in the contest – she recorded six extra-base hits in the series – and Austin and
Hannah Wessel both had three hits and a double.
Avery Morehead-Hutsell went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored in the contest. On the afternoon,
Olivia Mackey – fresh off a five-hit effort in the second game of the series – compiled four more hits and ended the series 10-for-12 at the plate.
The Argos sunk to 1-11 overall and 1-5 in the CCC.
The Raiders are off next weekend before playing an exhibition game against the USA Women's Softball National Team on March 18 at 3 p.m. in Eugene. They'll return home March 20-21 to play a four-game series against British Columbia.
