Oregon Tech Claims Pivotal Softball Series With Yotes
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - On a day Oregon Tech and College of Idaho combined for nine home runs, the Owls Ali Graham combined for three long balls, helping the No. 12 team in the NAIA claim a doubleheader sweep of the Yotes at Stilwell Stadium.
OIT (35-12, 20-4 CCC) earned a 10-0 victory in the rubber game of the Cascade Conference series and rallied for a wild 8-7 victory in the nightcap.
Tech clubbed five home runs in Game 1 - as Graham and Andrea Sotelo hit back-to-back solo blasts in the first inning to stake the hosts to a 2-0 lead. Graham hit her second homer of the game, a 2-run shot in the fifth, pushing the lead to 5-0, with Sotelo ending the contest an inning later with a long 3-run bomb.
It was more than enough for Sarah Abramson, who recorded her second-straight shutout - limiting the Yotes (33-11, 18-6) to just four hits.
Game 2 was similar, as Tech built a 5-0 lead after five innings - including a Graham solo homer in the fifth.
C of I would pull even in the sixth, as Marissa Maddox launched a grand slam homer to center and an out later, Brielle Stephens hit her first collegiate home run to tie the game at 5-5. After OIT regained the lead in their sixth on a Kiahna Brown RBI single, the Yotes got a dramatic 2-run homer with 2-outs from Haley Loffer to take a 7-6 lead.
However, Tech took advantage of a late C of I error to load the bases with one out in the seventh, with Logan Nunes providing the winning blow with an RBI single.
Trystin Crofts went 4-for-4 and both Alyssa Goff and Loffer each had two hits for the Yotes, with Brown recording three of OIT's 14 hits in the contest.