ASHLAND – A split took Southern Oregon out of contention for a top-two seed in the Cascade Conference, but the No. 13-ranked Raiders proved they could hang with one of the country's best arms and may have spoiled No. 11 Eastern Oregon's championship chances Friday at University Field.
SOU took Game 1, 4-3, thanks to
Hannah Clavelle's two-out double in the fifth inning that brought in the tying and go-ahead runs against Kaylie Hoskins, whose 0.57 ERA entering the series ranked second in the NAIA. Kylie Parsons, another EOU pitcher with a sub-one ERA, was one out shy of a Game 2 shutout in leading the Mountaineers to a 5-2 win.
But the damage was done by the time Parsons delivered her gem. The Mountaineers (33-7 overall, 22-4 CCC), seeking their first conference title since 1999, came into the day tied atop the standings with Oregon Tech and with a tiebreaker in hand. The Owls swept College of Idaho to take a one-game lead, meaning EOU will need a win against SOU and an OIT loss to C of I in the teams' final CCC counters on Saturday to come out on top.
The Raiders (33-14, 19-7) would have needed a series sweep for a shot at the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in next week's CCC Tournament. They can still move up to No. 3, but will have to win Saturday's Game 1 and hope for back-to-back C of I losses (Saturday at OIT and Sunday against British Columbia if necessary) to move up.
Either way, Friday's opener was a welcome confidence booster with the postseason looming. The Raiders' ace,
Katie Machado, battled through it to improve to 18-4, shrugging off nine hits and a pair of walks to survive another complete game.
Piper Love's first-inning RBI single and a throwing error on
Kailer Fulton's bunt single in the third had the score tied at 2-2. EOU's Gates Leatherwood untied it with a towering solo home run to right-center in the top of the fifth before Clavelle decided the game in the bottom half.
Fulton, who went 3-for-3, led off the inning with a hit and Henderson followed with a bunt single to set the stage. They moved over on
Piper Love's sacrifice, and with two outs Clavelle drove Hoskins' left-handed offering to the opposite field, sticking it just inside the foul line and bouncing it to the fence to drive in two.
The Mountaineers put two on with no outs in the sixth, but Machado escaped the jam with some help behind the plate from Love, who stopped Machado's bouncer and caught Kelly Monaghan stealing third to end the threat. Machado then left another potential tying run stranded at third in the seventh.
SOU pushed all four of its runs across against Hoskins, three of them earned, and though she struck out 12 the Raiders ran up her pitch count to 127.
Parsons struck out 10 more Raiders in Game 2. She got a lead to work with when the Mountaineers strung together five singles during a three-run fourth. Haley Tyree and Addison Ribordy notched run-scoring hits in both the fourth and sixth innings.
SOU recorded three of its hits in the seventh inning and brought the potential tying run to the plate before Parson's final punch-out clinched the win.
First pitch on Saturday is scheduled for 11 a.m.
