SOU first baseman Megan Scherer fields and throws during Game 1 against Simpson on Saturday.
ASHLAND – By its 23rd inning against Simpson this week, the Southern Oregon University softball team was able to pin a run on the Redhawks but couldn't salvage a win Saturday at University Field.
The Redhawks claimed both ends of the nonleague doubleheader, 2-0 and 8-3, to sweep four games from the Raiders since Tuesday. They improved to 16-3 behind Carlye Avey's Game 1 shutout – which was Simpson's third straight against SOU – and 11 hits in the nightcap in support of Paris Hallums' complete game.
SOU's offensive drought mercifully came to an end in the fourth inning of the nightcap, when consecutive doubles hit by Sierra Anderson, Julia Willison and Sulie Augustine netted two runs. Willison also led off the sixth with a single and scored the Raiders' final run, and Augustine went 3-for-3.
The Raiders (1-7) could have used that production in the first game, when Brianne Craig worked around eight hits and four walks to throw her first career complete game. Craig worked out of bases-loaded jams in the third and sixth innings but allowed the only run Simpson needed in the second when Cherie DeJesus tripled and Shayley Madruga doubled her home.
Avey made that and a fifth-inning insurance run stand. She allowed six hits, struck out three and walked one.
The Redhawks put Hallums in cruise control early, scoring twice in the first and twice in the second, though three of those runs were unearned. After SOU's string of doubles cut into the lead, the Raiders brought the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs in the fifth inning. However, Hallums got out of trouble and Chelsea Dunn's three-run triple busted the game open the following frame.
Hallums struck out eight, walked two and allowed seven hits in as many innings. Sydney White took the loss.
The Raiders – whose three opponents thus far have a combined record of 52-7 – begin Cascade Conference play at home next Friday against Northwest Christian, the first of five straight home doubleheaders to start CCC play. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.