2 p.m. / 4 p.m. Friday – College of Idaho at SOU
11 a.m. / 1 p.m. Saturday – College of Idaho at SOU
LIVE STREAMS | LIVE STATS
*A limited number of home fans will be allowed inside the facility, with priority given to parents and family members of the home team.

ASHLAND – The No. 23-ranked College of Idaho softball team has commanded the Cascade Conference's attention as a championship contender, but No. 1 Southern Oregon will conduct the most thorough examination of its credentials yet Friday and Saturday at University Field.

With three weeks left to play in the regular season, the Yotes (30-8 overall, 18-0 CCC) have maintained an unbeaten conference record and a one-game lead over the Raiders (34-2, 17-1), whose last CCC series loss came at C of I's hands in 2019. After visiting the defending national champions, however, the Yotes' arduous road to the finish line continues next weekend against No. 5 Oregon Tech (29-5, 14-4).

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: At Eastern Oregon, the Raiders improved to 25-1 on the road with another sweep, winning 7-0, 6-4, 18-1 and 10-3. Senior pitcher Gabby Sandoval collected two more wins by not allowing an earned run over her 12 innings of work in the series, and the bottom half of the lineup carried the offensive load. Avery Morehead-Hutsell drove in nine runs on six hits, Olivia Mackey went 7-for-13 with four runs and five RBIs, and Rylan Austin batted 6-for-8 with five RBIs. In the middle of the lineup, Riley Donovan and Tayler Walker both recorded five hits and two for extra base on the weekend.

SHORT HOPS:

• Led by Lauren Quirke's .483 average, six lineup regulars are batting .400 or better for SOU. Only 10 Raiders have done so for an entire season in team history, and never more than two in the same season.
• With 140 career RBIs, Hannah Shimek needs one more to break a tie with Harlee Donovan for sole possession of the program record. Quirke, however, is on the chase: she's up to 131, and she and Riley Donovan are tied for fifth on the NAIA leaderboard with 42 apiece this season.
• Allie Stines leads the NAIA in doubles (23) and Shimek leads in triples (8) and is third in runs scored (44). Stines is two doubles away from tying her own CCC record.
• Last weekend, Gabby Sandoval became the 10th pitcher in NAIA history to eclipse 800 career innings pitched, and with 164 appearances, she's five away from the national record. At 108-17 all-time, she has the second-best winning percentage (.864) among all pitchers in NAIA history with at least 100 wins, and fourth-best among those with at least 50 decisions. At 18-0 this year, she's No. 5 on the NAIA wins leaderboard, but every pitcher in front of her has multiple losses. She's also No. 2 in ERA (1.11) among all pitchers with at least 100 innings logged.
• Sandoval's last regular season loss came at C of I; she's won 32 consecutive decisions overall. During her career in CCC play, she went 6-4 as a freshman and has gone 52-4 ever since, including a 40-1 mark since the start of 2019.
• Quirke's ERA dipped again last week to 1.67 with seven innings and no earned runs allowed as she improved to 11-2. Only once in team history have the Raiders produced two 15-win pitchers in the same season: 2016, with Victoria Mackey (16-3) and Sydney White (15-10).
• The Raiders are 41-1 at University Field since their last home series loss. They've won 19 of their last 20 CCC series, and nine consecutive home series.
• The Raiders have trailed going into the fifth inning just three times in 36 games.
• On the NAIA team leaderboards, they're No. 1 in batting average (.402), No. 3 in slugging (.573), and No. 9 in opponents' average (.201).
• SOU's pitchers have recorded more than four times as many strikeouts (222) as opponents' pitchers have against the Raider lineup (49).
• The Raiders have committed half as many errors (28) as their opponents (56). Olivia Mackey has now played 120 consecutive games in right field without an error, and Avery Morehead-Hutsell has gone 37 straight in center field.

ABOUT COLLEGE of IDAHO:

• The Yotes are fresh off an impressive four-game sweep of fourth-place Corban in which they outscored the Warriors 37-15. They've won eight straight and 24 of their last 25.
• They top the NAIA in total runs scored (323) and are No. 3 in runs scored per game (8.5).
• C of I's last top-two finish in the CCC regular season standings was in 2009, when it won the title in a seven-team conference. The Yotes qualified for the national tournament in 2019 for the first time in five years.
• They boast a wide array of pitching options with a 2.15 team ERA, headed by Katelyn Wilfert (12-3, 1.79 ERA), Hannah Mcnerney (10-4, 2.38) and Annie Polster (8-0, 2.23). Only Mcnerney was on the team the last time they faced the Raiders.
• Micha Fortune leads the CCC in batting average at .488. The Yotes' deep lineup also includes Kailey Christensen (12 XBH, 39 RBIs) and Haley Loffer (6 HRs, 17 XBH, 24 RBIs).