Sierra Anderson hits a single during Game 2.
ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University softball team flirted with a couple upsets but couldn't close the deal against the hottest team in the Cascade Conference on Friday at University Field.
The Concordia Cavaliers (26-14 overall, 18-4 CCC) made the Raiders victims of their fourth straight sweep, prevailing 3-2 and 6-3, and have won 18 of 20 conference games going into a first-place showdown Saturday at Oregon Tech.
Meghan Luebbert, Katie Aden and Taylor Copher stroked consecutive doubles to play the tying and go-ahead runs in the fifth inning of Game 1, and Kate Santos' suicide squeeze plated Jennifer Lutton for the go-ahead run in the sixth inning of Game 2.
The Raiders (12-16, 11-9) were tougher on Cavs pitchers McKenzie Marshall and Lucy Baldovino than any other team recent weeks, but that's not saying much. The duo has held opponents to three runs or less now in 18 of CU's last 20 games, and coming into the day had allowed a total of three runs in five games.
Sulie Augustine drilled a two-run, game-tying homer off Baldovino over the fence in left-center in the fifth inning of the nightcap. It was SOU's first homer in its last 25 games at University Field and the first of Augustine's career.
After the Cavs took the lead in the sixth – with a rally set up by Cassidy Horner's double – Marshall came in to close out Baldovino's win. She pitched a complete game in the opener, scattering nine hits with five strikeouts and no walks. Baldovino went five, fanned five and allowed three hits.
Augustine and Megan Scherer had four hits apiece on the day to lead the Raiders. Ashley Lowe went 3-for-4 in the opener, including a double in the first inning followed by Alexa Gonzalez's single, Augustine's RBI triple and Julia Willison's RBI single to put the Raiders up 2-0.
Horner got Concordia on the board with a solo shot in the fourth before the trio of doubles in the fifth. Six of Concordia's nine hits went for extra bases, including a second RBI double for Copher in the seventh.
Luebbert, Aden, Horner and Kate Santos had three hits apiece for the Cavs. Santo gave them a first-inning lead in Game 2 with a two-run single after three free passes. They scored three times in the seventh on an RBI single by Luebbert, an RBI triple by Horner and Copher's RBI groundout.
SOU, which still has a 2 ½-game lead over Corban for the fourth and final spot in the CCC tournament, closes out its home schedule on Saturday against Northwest with first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m. The Eagles dropped to 1-27 with two losses Friday at Oregon Tech.