(Medford, Ore.) -- Ashleigh Larson hit a walk off homerun to center field to lead off the bottom of the 7th inning to lift No. 8 Oregon Tech to a 7-6 come from behind win in a game that took 9 + days to complete after rain suspended the game in top of the second inning back on April 17th in Klamath Falls. The win clinches the CCC regular season title for Oregon Tech who will now host the CCC Post Season Tournament May 4th and 5th at the OIT Softball Complex on the campus of Oregon Tech. The Lady Owls improve to 35-7 on the season and 18-4 in Conference play. Southern Oregon slips to 20-18 and 10-12 in CCC play with the loss.
Southern Oregon scored the first 3 runs of the game in the 2nd inning back on April 17th in Klamath Falls, Ore. when Steph Vandenbusch led off the inning with a homerun. After 2 more SOU hits and an Oregon Tech error, the Raiders led 3-0 with a runner on first when the game was halted because of rain.
The game resumed, this time in Medford, Ore. 9 days, 22 hours and 55 minutes later. Oregon Tech inserted Taylor Schmidt to pitch and the League Leader in wins got the next 3-batters to ground out to get Tech out of the inning.
Schmidt was then hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the inning and Sara Coates made SOU pay for the free base runner as she hit her 8th home run of the season, a no doubter to deep left field to make it a 3-2 game.
Southern Oregon then answered when Julia Willison doubled, scoring Vandenbusch from first to make it 4-2 SOU.
Jess Plummer led off the bottom of the 3rd inning with a double and then scored on catcher Kayde Schafer’s 9th bomb of the season that tied the game at 4.
The Raiders went ahead 6-4 scoring 2-runs in the top of 6th taking advantage of a pair of hits and an error.
Tech then tied the game at 6 in the bottom of the 6th when after a Coates single, Janelle Cromie gave herself a great birthday present hitting a high towering homerun to deep right field her 9th of the season.
Southern Oregon threatened to score in the top of the 7th inning but stranded runners at 1st and 3rd to end the inning.
Oregon Tech’s Ashleigh Larson ended the game quickly in the top of the 7th inning as she hit the 1st pitch she saw over the center field fence to give OIT the 7-6 win and clinch back to back CCC Titles.
Taylor Schmidt picked up the win improving to 22-4 on the season.
Larson, Coates and Schaefer had 2-hits each to the Oregon Tech offense.
Jordyn Kurtz picked up the loss as she evened her record at 9-9 for SOU.
Oregon Tech will wrap up CCC play in Portland, Ore. Saturday, April, 28th playing a double header against Concordia University (24-18, 15-7 CCC), Concordia swept a CCC double-header from Corban on Friday to lockup the # 2 seed in the CCC Tournament, Corban will be the #3 seed in the tournament which will be played in Klamath Falls, Ore. on May 5th and 6th. The Winner of the CCC Post Season Tournament will earn the automatic bid the NAIA National Tournament in Gulf Shores, Alabama May 17th – 23rd.