No. 13 RAIDER SOFTBALL (32-13, 18-6 CCC)
2 p.m./4 p.m. Friday – vs. No. 11 Eastern Oregon
11 a.m./1 p.m. Saturday – vs. No. 11 Eastern Oregon
Tickets | Live Streams | Live Stats G1 / G2 / G3 / G4
*Fans at Friday's games will receive free Operation Red shirts

ASHLAND – Playoff implications abound as No. 13-ranked Southern Oregon closes the Cascade Conference regular season against No. 11 Eastern Oregon, with doubleheaders scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday at University Field.

The Raiders (32-13 overall, 18-6 CCC) are hoping to impress ahead of next week's final Top 25 poll, which will be a major factor in NAIA National Tournament seeding, and they could use a bounce-back performance after dropping three of four last week at No. 20 College of Idaho. The Mountaineers (32-6, 21-3), on the other hand, are seeking their first conference championship since topping a four-team circuit in 1999. Behind the NAIA's most effective one-two pitching combination – Kaylie Hoskins and Kylie Parsons, who both rank top-five nationally in ERA – they enter the weekend tied for first place with Oregon Tech (which hosts College of Idaho) and with the head-to-head tiebreaker in hand.

PLAYOFF PICTURE: The six-team, double-elimination CCC Tournament is scheduled to play out May 3-5 on the home field of the No. 1 seed. The Raiders, currently standing in fourth place, are guaranteed no worse than the No. 4 seed and have one path to the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye: They need a sweep of EOU and for C of I to lose at least three of its four remaining conference counters (with three coming at OIT and one against British Columbia). As for the fight for the No. 1 seed, EOU and OIT are both one game ahead of C of I in the loss column and EOU has tiebreakers over both teams.

On the national scale, the Raiders are a near lock to appear in the NAIA Opening Round for the eighth consecutive season, especially considering the field has expanded this year from 40 to 48 teams. The setbacks at C of I were a major blow to their chances of being among the 10 Opening Round hosts (which will be announced next week), but a big series against EOU could at least get them back in the conversation.

BRIEFLY:

• Three Raiders in their first season as full-time starters are carrying the load offensively: first baseman Jordan Henderson, third baseman Hannah Clavelle and catcher Piper Love. In CCC play, Henderson ranks second in batting average (.444) and third in both doubles (8) and home runs (4), while Clavelle ranks fifth in average (.415), second in homers (5) and fourth in RBIs (22). Overall, Henderson (.415) and Love (.400) are two of six players in the circuit with batting averages of .400 or better.
• Clavelle, Henderson and Kennedy Kila are tied for fourth on the CCC's overall home run leaderboard with six apiece.
• Katie Machado has moved into third place on SOU's all-time pitcher wins list, standing at 50-12 with a 2.17 ERA in her career. The senior is 17-4 with a 1.56 ERA this season, ranking 17th among NAIA pitchers in wins and sixth in saves with four. She leads the CCC in both innings pitched (148 1/3) and complete games (18), and has allowed two or fewer earned runs in 16 of 22 starts.
• With 27 stolen bases in 29 attempts, Kailer Fulton is only one off the conference lead. SOU is 110-of-119 collectively on the basepaths with 36 more steals than any other CCC team.
• The Raiders have committed just 16 errors in 24 conference games, giving them the CCC's second-best fielding percentage.
• SOU is 7-11 in games decided by one or two runs and has scored three or fewer runs in nine of its last 11 losses.
• The Raiders enter the weekend with a 14-2 record. Dating back to 2018, they've won 25 consecutive CCC series played entirely at University Field.

ABOUT EOU: Kaylie Hoskins, the NAIA's leader in strikeouts per seven innings pitched (13.3), comes into the series at 13-2 with a microscopic 0.57 ERA and Kylie Parsons is 17-2 with a 0.97 ERA. Opponents are batting .141 against them, and among their many statistical absurdities, the most glaring is that they've allowed eight extra-base hits combined over 217 innings; for context, the Nos. 3 and 4 pitchers on the conference's ERA leaderboard have allowed 50 extra-base hits combined. The EOU staff has conceded 13 total runs in its last 18 games, often covering for a streaky offense that had to pull out a pair of last at-bat, 2-1 wins last week against lowly Bushnell. Madelyn Durham (.370, 11 XBH, 33 RBIs), Katelyn Evans (.360) and Hannah Tyree (.344, 11 XBH, 24 RBIs) lead a lineup that bats .313 collectively. The Mountaineers are 32-76 all-time against SOU and last took a season series from the Raiders in 2016.