Owls, Raiders unbeaten through Day 1 of CCC Championships presented by U.S. Bank
ASHLAND – Oregon Tech and Southern Oregon made it out of Day 1 unbeaten in the Cascade Conference Softball Championships presented by U.S. Bank, where runs were at a premium Friday at University Field.
The third-seeded and 17th-ranked Owls (40-8 overall) needed two wins – including an upset of second-seeded and 15th-ranked College of Idaho (35-15) to cap the afternoon – to set up a matchup with the No. 1-ranked and three-time defending tournament champion Raiders (46-3), who fought off Corban’s upset bid, at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The four other teams will start Day 2 with elimination games: No. 4 seed Corban (26-22) and No. 6 seed Warner Pacific (19-24) at 9 a.m., and College of Idaho and No. 5 seed Eastern Oregon (16-31) at 11:30 a.m. The winners of those matchups will play another elimination contest at 4:30 p.m.
After an offense-heavy regular season, pitching stole the show Friday. OIT’s Sarah Abramson struck out 10 in a no-hitter of Warner Pacific before teaming with McKenzie Staub to limit C of I’s high-powered lineup; SOU’s Gabby Sandoval earned her 26th win of the season with a two-hit complete game against Corban; and Corban’s Ally Crakes started the tourney with a five-hit complete game win against EOU, allowing just one earned run.
A chronological game-by-game recap follows:
GAME 1 – CORBAN 2, EASTERN OREGON 1: In the tourney opener, Sophia Barbosa broke a tie with an RBI double in the top of the seventh inning to deliver a 2-1 win and send the Warriors to a matchup with Southern Oregon.
Corban's Ally Crakes got the better of a pitchers' duel between two lefties, throwing just 79 pitches and 61 strikes in a five-hit complete game without allowing an earned run. She trailed 1-0 in the fourth until Kayce Arase's two-out RBI single tied it.
Arase reached on a single with one out in the seventh and moved into scoring position on a passed ball. With one out, Barbosa delivered with a hit down the right-field line.
EOU pitcher Amanda Smith was charged with one earned run in a six-hit complete game. She struck out four and walked one.
GAME 2 – OREGON TECH 3, WARNER PACIFIC 0: OIT pitcher Sarah Abramson spun a no-hitter to lead the 17th-ranked Owls past the Knights and into the late game against College of Idaho.
Abramson became a 20-game winner with the decision. She struck out 10, including the side in the seventh inning, and walked two in her second no-hitter of the season. The first was in a five-inning affair against Northwest (Wash.) on Feb. 26.
She got all the support she needed in the first as the Owls strung together three hits to score two runs. Krista Ward had an RBI single and Kennedy Janzi drove in the second run on a groundout. In the sixth, McKenna Armantrout provided insurance with a two-out RBI single.
GAME 3 – SOUTHERN OREGON 4, CORBAN 1: A three-run sixth inning saved Southern Oregon from a shaky start to its title defense after a scare from the Warriors.
With one out in the sixth, Avery Morehead-Hutsell broke a 1-1 tie by bringing home Katrina Winterburn with a triple to the fence. Allie Stines then squeeze-bunted her in, and CCC Player of the Year Lauren Quirke put an exclamation point on the rally with her second RBI double of the day.
Gabby Sandoval, the CCC Pitcher of the Year, pitched a complete game to improve to 26-1 for the Raiders. She gave up two hits, both during a fifth inning in which Ivey Uppinghouse lined a game-tying RBI double. Sandoval got Makiah Johnson to fly out to the warning track to escape the jam.
Corban starter Lauren Besse – who went heavy on off-speed stuff to keep the Raiders off balance for most of the afternoon – survived 5 2/3 innings.
GAME 4 – OREGON TECH 7, COLLEGE of IDAHO 3: Oregon Tech broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth inning on back-to-back RBI doubles from Maggie Buckholz and Logan Nunes, staying unbeaten with the tournament’s first upset.
Following up on her no-hitter, OIT pitcher Sarah Abramson surrendered a run in each of the first three innings – two of them earned – before settling in to get through five and improve to 21-5. McKenzie Staub picked up the save, allowing one hit over the final two frames.
Tied in the bottom of the fifth, Krista Ward's hit and a C of I error set up Buckholz's double to right, and Nunes followed up immediately with a two-RBI rip that split the gap in left field. Kennedy Janzi piled on with another run-scoring hit in the sixth.
Buckholz went 3-for-4 for the Owls who went through three Yotes pitchers and won for the fifth time in seven head-to-head games this season.
C of I's Haley Loffer hit her eighth home run of the season, a solo blast in the third, and Kylie Smith and Kaily Christensen both went 2-for-3.