HELENA, Mont. – The gap between the Cascade Conference's heavyweights and everyone else continued to grow wider as No. 5 Southern Oregon punished Carroll (Mont.), 20-2 in five innings and 10-2 in six, to finish off a four-game series sweep on Saturday at Northwest Park.
On their highest-scoring afternoon of the season, the Raiders (31-7 overall, 18-4 CCC) ripped 36 hits over 11 frames and batted .537 as a team. They hit six more home runs, too, bringing their series total to 11. Senior all-stars
Riley Donovan and
Cayla Williams both accounted for two of them, and
Deja Acosta and
Lauren Weinberg hit the others.
The Raiders' weekend exploits gave them the highest batting average in the NAIA on the season at .381.
Williams had four hits in Game 1 – she went 11-for-14 with three home runs, 10 RBIs and nine runs scored during the set – but Weinberg blew the game open with a grand slam that made the score 8-0 in the second inning. Acosta followed with a three-run bomb in the third, and Donovan with a solo shot in the fourth.
SOU filled up the box score up and down the lineup:
Sammie Pemberton had three hits and three RBIs;
Sarah Kerling added three hits;
Kailer Fulton scored three times.
Donovan added an RBI double, and in Game 2 homered for the fourth time in the series. Williams followed up her four-hit game by going deep twice.
Lindsey Stripling contributed a pair of run-scoring hits,
Piper Love stroked an RBI double, and Kerling hit a two-run single.
The finale was a non-conference counter, but since the Saints (14-22, 10-13) joined the circuit in 2016, the Raiders have gone 20-0 against them in CCC games.
SOU, still second in CCC win percentage behind top-ranked Oregon Tech, has won five straight and 11 of its last 12 overall entering next weekend's series at 10th-place Warner Pacific.
Williams got the Game 1 victory by allowing one run over three innings to improve to 15-4 on the season, giving way to
Mayze Menefee for the last two frames.
Katie Machado went to 14-2 with a complete-game five-hitter in the finale.
