CCC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University softball team never hits the brakes before bursting through the regular-season finish line.
The Raiders' romp through the CCC schedule, which will go down as the most dominant in circuit history, concluded Saturday with two more mercy-rule victories, 14-4 and 9-1 in five innings each against Corban at University Field.
They'll take a 45-3 record into the postseason, as well as a multitude of hot bats – catcher
Allie Stines' being the hottest after she went 7-for-7 with a home run, two triples, a double, seven RBIs and five runs scored on the day. While outscoring the fourth-place Warriors (25-20, 16-11 CCC) 44-10 over four games and 20 innings on the weekend, the Raiders raised their team batting average to .418.
With a 26-1 CCC record, they're the first team ever to get through the conference slate with fewer than two losses. No team had recorded fewer than three since Oregon Tech went 17-2 in 2006.
Stines went 3-for-3 with a walk in Game 1, and her two-run double that triggered the eight-run rule in the fifth inning was her NAIA-leading 30th of the season.
Katrina Winterburn threw in two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored with a double, and
Rylan Austin and
Avery Morehead-Hutsell had two more hits.
Another complete-game, two-hit victory made
Gabby Sandoval 25-1. After surrendering an RBI double in the first, she retired the final 13 batters she faced.
In Game 2,
Hannah Lilly celebrated her senior day with her first complete-game win. She gave up three earned runs and struck out two over five frames. She got help from
Steph Collett, another senior getting a spot start, who doubled and reached on a walk.
Stines, again, provided a majority of the offensive fireworks by going 4-for-4 with five RBIs, four runs scored, and a blast over the right-field fence that accounted for SOU's last two runs of the day. She capped the series at 10-for-14 with five extra-base hits and 13 RBIs.
Olivia Mackey had seven hits in the series and went 3-for-3 with a double and three runs scored in Game 2.
Hannah Shimek registered three hits and two RBIs as the Raiders put up two runs in the first, five in the second, three in the third and four in the fourth.
The Raiders have applied the eight-run rule 23 times this season. They went 16-0 at home during the regular season and have won 49 of their last 50 at University Field.
They'll be back there at 2 p.m. Friday for their first game of the CCC Tournament against an opponent yet to be determined.
