Southern Oregon University softball players Riley Donovan, left, and Rylan Austin take a picture with a young fan at the national championship celebration in Ashland Tuesday.

ASHLAND — A staunch competitor, Southern Oregon catcher Riley Donovan has not blinked when put into some of the toughest situations a softball player could imagine on the diamond.

But when the Raiders lined up with their championship banner in hand and a throng of well-wishers across the fence at University Field to cap off Tuesday’s parade through Ashland, the emotions of the moment slowly began to chip away at Donovan.

For the fifth-year senior, who was the NAIA World Series MVP in 2021 and is the reigning NAIA Player of the Year, it became clear with every coach and player that stepped to the microphone to address the crowd that this was, in fact, the pinnacle of her SOU playing career.

“This team and this program and being here has meant the absolute world to me,” Donovan said immediately after Tuesday’s ceremony. “Sitting there and listening to all of my teammates speak, I am so proud of so many of them.”

“There’s a story for all of them,” she added. “Everybody fought, and to be a part of that and watching all of this was very surreal. It didn’t hit me until now. It was really emotional. It was a lot, but it’s exciting.”

Donovan was just one in a long line of grateful SOU players and coaches who were granted a fitting sendoff to a sensational season Tuesday afternoon.

The Raiders climbed aboard an Ashland Fire & Rescue engine and, with a police escort, started the parade route on the corner of Mountain Avenue and Siskiyou Boulevard and then headed south toward Wightman Street to make their way toward University Field for a trophy presentation with SOU president Rick Bailey.

The fourth-seeded Raiders’ 50-12 campaign culminated with an 11-0 title game victory over rival Oregon Tech, the No. 1 seed, last Wednesday for the program’s third national title in four years.

“It’s still surreal to be back and to have done what we did,” said SOU senior second baseman Deja Acosta during the ceremony. “Everyone keeps talking about this journey that this team has been on and it’s truly something that is so special to us and we’ll hold close to our hearts forever.”

In four NAIA World Series games, the Raiders outscored their opponents 35-2, with Donovan and Acosta joined by sophomore center fielder Sarah Kerling on an all-tournament team headlined by SOU senior pitcher and cleanup hitter Cayla Williams, who was named World Series MVP.

Williams pitched all 23 innings for SOU at the tournament and posted a 0.61 ERA while allowing just 13 hits. She was also a force at the plate, going 5-for-14 with 10 RBIs and hitting a grand slam in a 5-1 tourney-opening win over Georgia Gwinnett.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in even now,” Williams said after the ceremony of her MVP honor. “It’s really hard to even think about that. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the awards, because I really do and I put a lot of work into it, but what I appreciate more is the type of friendships I have with these girls. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

If all cards are on the table, it’s incredible what the Raiders were able to accomplish given a winless mark against Oregon Tech entering the World Series and a host of other challenges that certainly didn’t make SOU the team to beat in Columbus, Georgia.

“Our journey has been insane,” said Donovan. “Nobody thought it was going to be us this year. I’ve talked to countless amounts of people saying, ‘Man, you guys showed up, and I didn’t think that’s what you guys were going to do.’ They thought maybe we would win a couple games, but that is so us.”

“I think that this whole journey has been so fun to be a part of,” she added, “because we’ve had our ups and downs but every single loss and mistake, we’ve grown from it and we truly learned from it and then we tapped into who we truly were at the end and that was amazing. I can’t ask for any better way to end it.”

Speaking of fitting, it bears noting that Donovan’s final at-bat for the Raiders was a grand slam for her 23rd home run of the season and the finishing touch on SOU’s second win over Oregon Tech at the tourney. It also put her in the record books for the most tournament RBIs (11) in the current configuration of the NAIA World Series.

Those prospects didn’t seem likely after the Raiders lost on Day 1 of the NAIA Opening Round in Ashland, but Williams said the 8-4 loss to Vanguard (Calif.) may have been the wakeup call the team needed.

“That was the step that we needed to really kick ourselves into gear,” she said. “It was like now we’re legitimately playing like it’s our last game and we didn’t want to leave that game on their terms, we wanted to leave the game on our terms. We have a lot of seniors in our starting lineup so we really wanted to leave the game how we wanted to leave it, and that was the turning point.”

With every successive win thereafter, an already tight bond within the team grew even stronger.

“As we went on, there was more love,” said Williams. “When we broke from our circle every time in Georgia, we were like, ‘Love you guys,’ every single time. That love for each other and playing for one another and wanting to do well for the person next to us, there’s nothing you can’t beat when you’re doing that.”

It was a blend of confidence and camaraderie that SOU head coach Jessica Pistole knew the Raiders had within them, it all just needed to come together at once.

During the season-ending eight-game winning streak, that most certainly happened.

“That was our biggest thing all year and that was our battle was getting to this place where we could consistently believe as an individual that I can do this,” said Pistole, “and then, of course, that translates collectively to, as a team, now we can do this. When that finally clicked was when it was like, look out, there’s no stopping this crew.”

The performance in Georgia, especially, was impressive and allowed Southern Oregon University to gain national recognition for the second time this year after the women’s wrestling program earned the inaugural NAIA championship earlier in 2023.

“We can’t express how grateful we are for all of the things that you’ve done and the glory that you’ve brought to this university,” Bailey said to the SOU coaches and players following the championship trophy presentation. “We’re more proud than we can say.”

Whether it was the praise from Bailey or SOU fans or the host of young softball players on hand, Williams said Tuesday’s parade and ceremony just showed what an incredible community the Raiders have had supporting them along their journey.

“It’s so cool to see that,” said Williams, who’s in her second season with SOU after moving on from West Valley College. “We had a good support system at my (junior college) but the love and support that we get from our fans and from our coaches is just unbeatable. They really allow us to do what we can do and be successful like we are.”