CCC TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
MILWAUKIE –
Brooke Nordahl had a six-hit afternoon and Southern Oregon locked up the Cascade Conference's No. 3 seed by ending the regular season with 18-2 and 8-3 victories against Warner Pacific on Sunday for its second consecutive series sweep.
The No. 6-ranked Raiders, winners of eight in a row, will enter the postseason at 37-13 overall. They finished 16-8 in conference play – one game ahead of fourth-place British Columbia – and will open the six-team, double elimination CCC Tournament against No. 6 seed Simpson (Calif.) at 11:30 a.m. Friday in Klamath Falls. The winner will face No. 2 seed Eastern Oregon at 4:30 p.m.
Top-ranked Oregon Tech clinched the regular-season championship and tournament hosting rights by defeating EOU on Saturday, ending with a two-game edge over the Mountaineers.
Nordahl, a junior shortstop, totaled nine hits (including four for extra bases) and 10 RBIs on the weekend against the Knights (13-29). She had three run-scoring knocks in Sunday's opener, where the Raiders took a 14-0 lead in the second inning and punished WPU for 10 fielding errors.
Kierstin Grotewiel launched her second home run of the season in a 10-run second.
The Knights were friskier in Game 2, which was tied 3-3 through six innings. SOU second baseman
Vanessa Lang – who'd given the Raiders the initial lead in the first with an RBI triple – untied the score with a run-scoring single in the seventh, and Nordahl broke it open with a two-RBI triple.
Ari Williams' single and
Lexi Ramirez's triple plated two more.
Ayla Davies earned both decisions for the Raiders to bring her record to 19-7. She pitched a complete game in the five-inning opener and tossed three hitless relief innings in Game 2 after Ramirez gave up one run over 3 1/3 frames.
Lang went 4-for-9 on the day and joined Nordahl with nine hits in the series. Ramirez drove in four runs and accounted for one of the team's eight extra-base hits.
The CCC Tournament will be in Klamath Falls for the fifth year in a row. The final NAIA Top 25 coaches' poll will be revealed on Wednesday along with the 10 hosts of the NAIA Championship Opening Round.
