BELLEVUE, Wash. – Southern Oregon's regular-season title hopes took a major blow as the No. 8-ranked Raiders lost their first Cascade Conference series since 2019 on Friday against Northwest (Wash.) at Bellevue College Field.

The Eagles swept by scores of 4-2 and 11-6, getting a complete-game gem from Bella King in Game 1 and peppering eight hits while taking advantage of five walks and two costly late errors in Game 2. They stopped a 22-game head-to-head losing streak against SOU, improving to 10-22 overall and 7-12 in the CCC.

The Raiders (27-9, 11-5), who'd won five straight and eight of their last nine coming into the day, dropped to fourth place in the standings.

Game 1 followed an unwelcome trend, becoming their fourth loss in five CCC series-opening games. Their only offense was generated by solo home runs from Riley Donovan, her league-leading 11th of the season, and Piper Love, her third. The Eagles gave King a lead with three runs in the third. Emily Barry drove in one during the rally and later added a home run in the fifth.

The Raiders came alive with three runs in their first at-bat of Game 2 – getting RBI singles from Love and Lindsey Stripling – but gave five back in the bottom of the inning. Stripling hit another run-scoring single in the sixth to trim NU's lead to 7-6 before the Eagles delivered the knockout with four runs in the bottom half, three of which were unearned.

Madisyn Leffle and Jordan Dippel, the first two batters in the NU lineup, totaled one hit, two walks and three runs scored apiece. Barry drove in three more and Jessica Nunes had two RBI, making a winner of Sydney Maurer after five four-hit frames in relief.

Donovan, Love and Phelicty Fa'aita led the Raiders with three hits each on the day.

SOU and NU will play a CCC counter and a non-conference game starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.