ASHLAND – The No. 1-ranked Southern Oregon softball team finished off a three-game Cascade Conference sweep of Corban before the Warriors snapped a 21-game losing streak with a stunning upset in the non-conference series finale Saturday at University Field.
SOU (34-4 overall, 16-2 CCC) took the opener 8-0 in five innings behind
Ayla Davies, who twirled a one-hitter and had a perfect game going before Miranda Scovil led off with a single in the Warriors' last at-bat.
Corban (2-31, 1-17) hung on for a 9-8 victory in Game 2, where Scovil pitched the final 3 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run and left the potential tying run stranded at third base in the bottom of the seventh. The Warriors scored the first seven runs of the contest in the second inning – all unearned as a two-out SOU error preceded five consecutive run-scoring singles. Reagan McDaniel and Regan Rasmussen combined for five RBIs on two hits apiece.
Before the letdown, the Raiders kept pace with first-place Eastern Oregon in the conference title race entering the last three weeks of the regular season, remaining a game back in the standings. Davies' 12th shutout of the season made her 20-2, and
Brooke Nordahl went 2-for-3 with a triple, three RBIs and a run scored.
Faith Moultrie, who was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single in the first inning and
Ari Williams added another in the third. SOU scored four in the fourth and two more in the fifth to trigger the mercy rule for the third consecutive game.
In Game 2, the Raiders trailed 9-5 with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning when a dropped popup on the infield opened the door for a comeback.
Kierstin Grotewiel and
Avery Coffin cashed in with back-to-back run-scoring doubles to trim the deficit to one run, and
Sarah Kerling led off the seventh with a single. Three straight groundouts ended their threat.
Destinee Estrada had three hits for the Warriors, who ended a 23-game head-to-head losing streak to SOU. Grotewiel, Kerling and
Kailer Fulton each had three hits for the Raiders.
SOU is on the road next weekend at fifth-place British Columbia.