NAIA Championship Opening Round | Ashland Bracket
MONDAY'S RESULTS
G1 | (4) Dordt (Iowa) 2 vs. (5) Ottawa (Ariz.) 0
G2 | (2) Texas A&M-Texarkana 5, (3) Saint Francis (Ind.) 4
G3 | (1) Southern Oregon 3, vs. Dordt 1
TUESDAY'S RESULTS
G4 | Saint Francis 7, Ottawa 1 (Ottawa eliminated)
G5 | Southern Oregon 5, Texas A&M-Texarkana 2
G6 | Dordt 7, Saint Francis 5 (USF eliminated)
WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS
G7 | Dordt 7, Texas A&M-Texarkana 2 (TAMUT eliminated)
G8 | Southern Oregon 10, Dordt 2 (6 inn.) (Final Round)
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
ASHLAND – Approaching the one-month anniversary of its last loss, Southern Oregon's mid-season struggles were a distant memory while celebrating another NAIA Opening Round title on Wednesday afternoon.
The top-seeded Raiders will head back to Columbus, Ga., to defend their national title after electrifying Laurel Park with a 10-2, six-inning win over No. 4 seed Dordt (Iowa) in the Ashland Bracket's championship round. They squared up six extra-base hits, the first of which went off the bat of Brooke Nordahl for a two-run, first-inning homer to dead-center that permanently put momentum on their side.
Since dropping three of their first six Cascade Conference series, the Raiders (44-13) have won 15 games in a row. During the streak, they've outscored opponents 114-21. Through seven postseason contests, that margin is 48-10.
Their trip to the World Series will be the program's eighth in nine years. The 10-team, double-elimination bracket will be announced on Thursday or Friday after the rest of the Opening Rounds are finalized.
"We're heading to Georgia in the right space," said SOU coach Jessica Pistole, who will attempt to guide her team to a fifth national title in seven years. "We're a very different team than we were a month ago and I think we've just loosened up. The belief that we've been talking about has actually resonated and settled inside of us, and it's just fun to see this team compete freely."
Dordt (42-14), the Great Plains Athletic Conference co-champion, completed a 7-2 elimination victory over No. 2 seed Texas A&M-Texarkana less than an hour before the final to stay alive. Freshman pitcher Rylee Yager tossed a complete game in that one but needed 126 pitches to get through it. She found no respite against SOU's lineup.
The Raiders jumped on her early, starting with Nordahl's home run and continuing with a two-run triple that Kalea Thomas lined to the gap in the second inning. They chased Yager by scoring two more in the third, where Avery Coffin hit an RBI single and Kierstin Grotewiel an RBI double, then continued to tack on.
Nordahl went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, later adding a double. Thomas went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Coffin logged two hits and reached base four times, and additional doubles came from Elysia Duarte and Ari Williams. CiCi Kim's sacrifice fly triggered the mercy rule.
Nordahl has gone deep twice in her last four games after a 32-game homerless string. She's driven in 11 runs in seven postseason outings. Thomas has, absurdly, batted .589 (33-for-56) during a 15-game hitting streak.
In the circle, the Raiders got more of the same from Ayla Davies. The sophomore right-hander recorded seven strikeouts without a walk in another complete game, winning her 11th consecutive decision to improve to 26-7.
Davies gave up four hits while SOU tallied 11.
"I think we've found the gear where we play best," Pistole said. "We believe we're the best team in the country and are playing each game like we believe we're the best team on the field. With that mindset, you can win any game on any given day."
The Raiders will be joined by at least one other CCC team, College of Idaho, at the World Series, and possibly three more – British Columbia, Eastern Oregon and Oregon Tech – that are all in Opening Round finals.
Of the 10 top seeds in Opening Round brackets, three have been eliminated and five others are a loss away from elimination.
