2021 NAIA SOFTBALL WORLD SERIES
5 p.m. PDT Friday – No. 1 SOU vs. No. 9 Bethany (Kan.)
South Commons Softball Complex | Columbus, Georgia
Bracket | Tournament Central | Live Streams

*UPDATED: SOU's World Series opener Friday againast Bethany has been pushed back an hour to 5 p.m. Pacific Time due to rain.

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University softball team has arrived at the NAIA World Series looking more like giants than ever before as the defending champion and No. 1 overall seed. But if last week's abundance of Opening Round upsets was any indication, the Raiders will be mixing it up with a group of teams not all that concerned about stature.

For the first time since 2014, the 10-team, double-elimination tournament is back in Columbus, Georgia, where action begins Thursday at the South Commons Softball Complex. SOU (49-5) will have to wait until 5 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday to make its debut against No. 9 seed Bethany (Kan.) (29-27), which defeated No. 8 seed Milligan (Tenn.) 2-0 on Thursday.

PLAYOFF PICTURE: Ten of the last 11 tournament champions have come out of winners' bracket, and for good reason: if they win out, the Raiders can wrap up a title in as few as four games. However, if they lose their opener – which the No. 1 seed last did in 2015 – they'll be faced with six consecutive elimination games.

A first-round triumph would set the Raider up to play at 1 p.m. PDT Saturday against the winner of a matchup between No. 4 seed College of Idaho and No. 5 seed Ottawa (Kan.). Sunday is an off day, and the team that comes out of the winners' bracket will get another on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's championship round.

BRACKET TIDBITS:

• Of the 10 teams that advanced, seven were Nos. 3 or 4 seeds at their respective Opening Round sites. In the previous seven postseasons since the Opening Round format was adopted in 2013, only eight Nos. 3 or 4 seeds combined advanced to the World Series, and never more than two in the same year.
• SOU and Oregon Tech, the only No. 1 seeds that advanced, are the lone teams back from the 2019 field, which featured all 10 No. 1 seeds from the Opening Round. The Raiders and Owls also the only teams that have previously won national championships, and they and Ottawa (Kan.) are the only teams that have appeared at the tournament more recently than 2014.
• Half of the field did not appear in the final NAIA Top 25 coaches' poll.
• The No. 1-ranked team has won the tournament eight times in the last 20 years. In that period, the lowest-ranked team to win it was No. 18 Oregon Tech in 2011.
• This marks the first time that three Cascade Conference teams are in the same World Series field. It's the fourth time the CCC has produced multiple representatives, and each of those instances have occurred since 2015. No CCC teams have ever gone head-to-head at the World Series.
• After SOU, Oregon Tech – which was among the top-10 all season until being dropped to No. 17 in the final Top 25 – is the No. 2 overall seed. The last time two teams from the same conference met in the championship was 2014, when Auburn Montgomery (Ala.) and William Carey (Miss.) squared off.

SOU SHORT HOPS:

• The Raiders are the first CCC team ever to earn four straight World Series berths. Before their run began in 2017, they'd never been in one. They made their first appearance as a No. 8 seed; they were the No. 6 seed when they came within one win of the championship round in 2018; and they captured the title in 2019 as the No. 4 seed, taking down No. 3 Oklahoma City in the final.
• At 49-5, the Raiders are four victories away from breaking the program wins record for the fourth consecutive (full) season.
• SOU still tops the NAIA leaderboard in runs per game (8.1) and batting average (.408). The Raiders are 34-1 when they strike in the first inning, where they've outscored opponents a combined 88-14. They're 37-0 when they score six runs or more, and 41-0 when holding opponents to three runs or fewer.
• At 29-3 with a 1.47 ERA, Gabby Sandoval is tied with Ottawa (Kan.)'s Casson Rasmussen for the most wins among all the pitchers at the tournament. Sandoval is now 119-20 in her career, two wins away from the No. 3 spot and three away from No. 2 on the NAIA's all-time wins list. At the 2019 World Series, she went 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA while pitching 31 2/3 of SOU's 35 defensive innings. She owns a 7-2 career record at the tournament.
• Prior to this season, only one player in the history of SOU softball, Kelsey Randall, had recorded 200 career hits. Four Raiders have joined her in the last couple months: Hannah Shimek (256), Lauren Quirke (220), Allie Stines (205) and Olivia Mackey (201). Randall's record is safe at 336, however.
• Three of those Raiders have also exceeded Harlee Donovan's pre-2021 SOU career RBI record of 140: Shimek (154), Quirke (151) and Stines (144).
• Quirke – the CCC Player of the Year and reigning World Series MVP – is riding a 15-game hitting streak into the tournament, having gone 30-for-53 (.566) with 11 extra-base hits and 18 RBIs. During that same stretch, Stines has gone 29-for-50 (.580) with 10 extra-base hits, 26 RBIs and 20 runs scored; Avery Morehead-Hutsell has hit 20-for-38 (.526); and Shimek has hit 24-for-51 (.471).
• Among all NAIA players, Quirke ranks third in total bases (143), fifth in RBIs (62) and sixth in batting average (.486). She's the only top-10 player in any of those categories who also splits time as a pitcher, much less one with ace-like numbers (14-2, 1.73 ERA).
• Stines has not struck out since April 9, and her 31 doubles are tied for No. 2 in NAIA single-season history – four short of the record established in 1997.
• Quirke, Stines and Rylan Austin led the Raiders with five hits apiece in the Opening Round. Tayler Walker had two hits, but they were two of the biggest in the tournament: a three-run double in a win that put the Raiders in the title game, and a solo homer in the 4-3 championship win over Hope International (Calif.).
• Mackey, a right fielder, and Walker, a first baseman, have yet to commit an error this year. They're both two-time CCC Gold Glove winners. Mackey has gone 137 straight games without an error.
• In their careers at the World Series, Mackey is 12-for-34, Shimek is 12-for-39 with nine runs, and Walker is 11-for-35 with 11 RBIs.

IF IT'S BETHANY: The Swedes lost 14 consecutive games at one point before entering Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference play, but enter Friday's game having won 20 of their last 23. In their Opening Round bracket, which included third-ranked Science & Arts (Okla.), pitcher Samantha Quezada allowed just three runs in 21 innings and earned three consecutive complete-game victories. She pitched a three-hit shutout and got a two-run home run from Ciera Flores in the World Series-opening win over Milligan.