Raiders celebrate 4th straight NAIA Opening Round title
SOU Sports Information
Monday's Results
Game 1 – (3) Hope International (Calif.) 1, (2) Morningside (Iowa) 0
Game 2 – (1) Southern Oregon 7, (4) Saint Katherine (Calif.) 0
Tuesday's Results
Game 3 – Southern Oregon 5, Hope International 0
Game 4 – Morningside 5, Saint Katherine 4 (USK eliminated)
Game 5 – Hope International 3, Morningside 2 (MC eliminated)
Wednesday's Result
Game 6 – Southern Oregon 4, Hope International 3 (championship)
COMPLETE NAIA OPENING ROUND RESULTS
MEDFORD – With a schedule full of lopsided results, Southern Oregon's opportunities to exercise its big-moment chops were limited for most of 2021. But after Wednesday's 4-3 victory over Hope International (Calif.) that clinched another NAIA World Series berth, the No. 1-ranked Raiders can rest assured they're still functioning properly.
Allie Stines drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning and Gabby Sandoval wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam with some help from Hannah Shimek's glove in the seventh, giving the Raiders the Opening Round Southern Oregon Bracket championship Wednesday afternoon at US Cellular Community Park.
They'll be in the World Series for the fourth consecutive postseason, this time to defend their national title, from May 27 through June 2 in Columbus, Georgia. The 10-team bracket is expected to be revealed Thursday morning by the NAIA and will feature only one other Opening Round No. 1 seed: Oregon Tech.
In fact, at the time of publication Wednesday, only one No. 2 seed was still alive: College of Idaho, another of SOU's Cascade Conference rivals.
By reaching the Opening Round final via the winners' bracket, the Raiders (49-5) would have had another chance to defeat the 11th-ranked Royals (30-11) if they'd needed it, but a fortunate finish saved the trouble.
Tied 3-3, SOU shortstop Rylan Austin led off the bottom of the sixth with a hard-hit single to right before the SOU nickeled-and-dimed its way to the decisive run. Following an Olivia Mackey walk, Avery Morehead-Hutsell and Stines hit back-to-back bloopers that were inches outside of HIU shortstop Cynthia Barba's reach in shallow left field. Stines' hit, which made her 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored, brought Austin home.
In the top of the seventh, a throwing error, an infield hit, a botched rundown and a hit-batsman loaded the bases with one out. Sandoval got the second by coaxing a popup out of Nicole Wise on the 10th pitch she saw.
That brought up Emily Puente, whose solo home run off Sandoval had tied the score in the fourth. On Sandoval's 125th delivery of the game, Puente laced a shot that appeared bound for right field before Shimek, SOU's 5-foot-10 second baseman, fully extended upward to snag the final out.
Sandoval's line included seven hits, one strikeout and one walk in her third complete game of the tournament and 29th win of the season.
She fell behind 2-0 when the Royals strung together three runs in the second. Tayler Walker – whose three-run double served as the big blow in Tuesday's 5-0 win over HIU – cut the lead in half with a solo home run that hooked inside the left-field foul pole. In the third, Stines and Lauren Quirke ripped back-to-back RBI singles to give the Raiders a 3-2 lead.
Quirke, the CCC Player of the Year, also went 3-for-4 and doubled in the first. She, Austin and Stines led the Raiders with five hits apiece in the tournament.
The Raiders also defeated HIU for the 2019 Opening Round title. That year, all 10 top seeds at their respective sites advanced to the World Series.