NAIA OPENING ROUND – SOUTHERN OREGON BRACKET
(All Games at U.S. Cellular Community Park)
Monday, May 17:
Game 1 – (2) Morningside (Iowa) vs. (3) Hope International (Calif.), 11 a.m.
Game 2 – (1) Southern Oregon vs. (4) Saint Katherine (Calif.), 1:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 18:
Game 3 – G1 Winner vs. G2 Winner, 11 a.m.
Game 4 – G1 Loser vs. G2 Loser, 1:30 p.m. (loser eliminated)
Game 5 – G3 Loser vs. G4 Winner, 4 p.m. (loser eliminated)

Wednesday, May 19:
Game 6 – G3 Winner vs. G5 Winner, 11 a.m. (championship)
Game 7 – If necessary, 1:30 p.m.

OPENING ROUND QUALIFIERS | BRACKETS

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University softball team will be in Medford to begin its national title defense in earnest Monday in the NAIA Softball Championship Opening Round, the field for which was released Tuesday by the national office.

For the third consecutive postseason, the No. 1-ranked Raiders (46-5 overall) have the top seed in the Southern Oregon Bracket, which also includes the No. 11 Hope International (Calif.) Royals (28-9), the No. 13 Morningside (Iowa) Mustangs (42-9), and the unranked Saint Katherine (Calif.) Firebirds (13-19).

The double-elimination tournament runs next Monday through Wednesday at U.S. Cellular Community Park, with the City of Medford and SOU serving as co-hosts. The bracket champion will advance to the 10-team NAIA World Series, scheduled for May 27 through June 2 in Columbus, Georgia.

The Raiders are making their fifth straight Opening Round appearance. They won their brackets to attain World Series bids in 2017, '18 and '19.

They'll open against Saint Katherine, the No. 4 seed, at 1:30 p.m. Monday. The No. 3 seed, Hope International – which lost to SOU as the No. 2 seed in the 2019 Southern Oregon Bracket final – will open the tournament against No. 2-seeded Morningside at 11 a.m. Monday.

HIU and Morningside both received at-large bids in the 40-team field. The Royals topped the Golden State Athletic Conference's regular-season standings with an 18-6 record but fell to Ottawa (Ariz.) in the conference tournament, and Morningside was second in the Great Plains Athletic Conference with an 18-4 record before losing in the conference tournament semifinals.

St. Katherine, in its second season as an NAIA program, stole the California Pacific Conference's automatic bid by winning the tournament with back-to-back upsets of Simpson (Calif.).

SOU and Morningside are the only teams in the bracket with a World Series history. The Mustangs have been there six times, most recently in 2016.

The tourney can't come fast enough for the Raiders, who faltered in the Cascade Conference Tournament with back-to-back losses for the first time since 2019 after dominating the regular season with a 26-1 record.

A complete bracket preview will be published later this week.