Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo. No. 16 SOU secures rare sweep of OIT, 1-0 and 5-3 3/29/2016 8:06:00 PM SOU Sports Information ASHLAND – With two wins over back-to-back defending champion and preseason favorite Oregon Tech, the Southern Oregon University softball team officially inserted itself into the Cascade Conference title conversation Tuesday afternoon at University Field. The 16th-ranked Raiders (23-9 overall, 9-3 CCC) took the opener in extra innings, 1-0, when Kayleen Smith singled in Kelsey Randall for the walk-off run in the ninth to cap Sydney White's shutout. In their 5-3 Game 2 victory, Rebecca Velasquez had an RBI single in a three-run first inning and hit a solo home run in the fifth as freshman Victoria Mackey improved to 11-1 with a complete game. SOU, which has won all six games during its homestand, moved into a first-place tie in the CCC's West Division with the Owls going into home doubleheaders Friday against Eastern Oregon and Saturday against College of Idaho. OIT (16-13, 9-3) hadn't been swept in a CCC twin bill since 2013 and hadn't been swept by SOU since 2011. White, now 7-4 overall and 5-2 in conference play, became the first Raider to finish off a shutout in extra innings since the program came back in 2001. She wiggled in an out of trouble time and again – OIT had two on with no outs in the second, the bases loaded with no outs in the fourth and two on with no outs in the ninth – as she worked around seven hits, one walk and three hit-batsmen with six strikeouts. When OIT loaded the bases in the fourth, White struck out Sadie Birch for the first out. Alyssa Davis then lined out to Megan Winton in right field and, when Karly LeVeque attempted to tag up from third, Winton overthrew catcher Jazmin Ruvalcaba at home but White backed her up, made the catch and lunged to apply the tag. With runners on second and third and two outs in the ninth, Winton made a game-saving catch coming in on Sydni Scott's looper, which Winton picked off the top of her shoe. The Raiders had several chances of their own to end the game sooner, leaving 13 runners on base. Finally, Kelsey Randall led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk and was bunted over by Alexa Gonzalez. Smith was next up and lined Ann-Marie Guischer's 0-1 delivery to right field for the win. Guischer allowed 10 hits and five walks in 8 1/3 innings, striking out five over 151 pitches. Smith, Ruvalcaba and Tyler Burke had two hits apiece. The Owls struck first in Game 2 when Ali Graham singled in Tara Moates during the opening frame, but the Raiders jumped all over Graham in the bottom half of the inning: Randall tripled, Gonzalez doubled and Smith and Velazquez singled with no outs to make it 3-1. The Raiders added another run in the second as Gonzalez scored when Smith's grounder to second was mishandled, and Velasquez's second homer of the year put SOU up 5-1 in the fifth. Mackey scattered nine hits, walked one and struck out one, throwing 60 strikes during her 93-pitch outing. The Owls brought the potential tying run to the plate after McKenzie Shrum's two-run triple in the seventh inning, but Mackey got Moates – the 2015 CCC player of the year – to pop out and fanned Graham to end the threat. Randall, Gonzalez and Taylor Martinez stroked two hits apiece for the Raiders, who had 10 more hits in all. OIT's Kelly Scott allowed just six hits and one earned run with four strikeouts in six innings of relief. On the day, Katie Virtue had four hits while Shrum, Graham and Cassidy Hoglund had three apiece for the Owls. OIT had won nine of its previous 10 games against SOU coming into the afternoon.