NAIA CHAMPIONSHIPS OPENING ROUND – ASHLAND BRACKET
Monday's Results:
Game 1 – (3) Reinhardt (Ga.) 6, (2) Southeastern (Fla.) 4
Game 2 – (4) Vanguard (Calif.) 8, (1) Southern Oregon 4
Tuesday's Games:
Game 3 – Reinhardt vs. Vanguard, 11 a.m. |
Live Stats
Game 4 – Southern Oregon vs. Southeastern, 1:30 p.m. (loser eliminated) |
Live Stats
Game 5 – G3 Loser vs. G4 Winner, 4 p.m. (loser eliminated)
Wednesday's Games:
Game 6 – G3 Winner vs. G5 Winner, 11 a.m. (championship)
Game 7 – If necessary, 1:30 p.m.
LIVE STREAMS | TICKETS
ASHLAND – Vanguard (Calif.) continued its stunning postseason run with an offensive outburst against No. 4-ranked Southern Oregon, ripping 14 hits and putting up a five-spot in the fourth inning to pull off an 8-4 upset in the teams' NAIA Championship Opening Round debut Monday at University Field.
Vanguard (27-28 overall), seeded No. 4 in the Ashland Bracket, became the first team since 2017 to defeat the top-seeded Raiders (42-12) in their first game of the Opening Round. The Lions did so as one of just three teams in the 40-team national field with a sub-.500 record, having qualified by winning the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament after dropping seven of their final eight regular-season games.
They tallied five hits in the decisive fifth inning, three of which went for extra bases, while going through three SOU pitchers. Trailing 3-2, Tiffany Pope lined a game-tying RBI double and Noni Chaves followed with a two-run triple to the wall. Two batters later, GSAC Player of the Year Kaylie Williams tacked on with a two-run double to the right-center field gap.
The Raiders need to win four consecutive games in the double-elimination bracket to advance to the 10-team NAIA World Series. They'll start at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday against No. 20-ranked Southeastern (Fla.), the No. 2 seed in the bracket, which dropped a 6-4 decision to No. 3 seed Reinhardt (Ga.) in its tourney opener. Vanguard and Reinhardt will match up at 11 a.m. for a spot in Wednesday's championship round, with the loser playing an elimination game against the SOU-Southeastern survivor at 4 p.m.
Chaves went 2-for-4 atop the lineup for Vanguard and scored the first run of the game on Bianca Morales' fourth-inning single. The Lions made it 2-0 on Mackenzie Hofmann's sacrifice fly later in the inning.
VU ace Brianna Williams, who entered the day with a 1.74 ERA, earned the win to improve to 16-11. She cruised through her first three frames before running into trouble in the bottom of the fourth, where Lauren Weinberg's hard-hit ball through the infield plated two runs and Lindsey Stripling briefly delivered SOU the lead with an RBI groundout.
The Lions got the advantage back minutes later, and Williams worked one more inning before giving way to LeeAnne Miranda for a six-out save.
Kaylie Williams and Marissa Gurrola had three hits apiece for the Lions, who had scored eight-plus runs just once in their previous 12 games. They came into the contest with a team batting average of .267.
Deja Acosta and Riley Donovan both had two hits for SOU, and Cayla Williams added an RBI single in the fifth. Starting pitcher Katie Machado took the loss, dropping to 18-4, and was charged with five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.