No. 4-ranked Raiders will next host NAIA Championships Opening Round action May 12-15 in Ashland

KLAMATH FALLS — Southern Oregon’s stay at the Cascade Conference Championships ended Saturday at Stilwell Stadium with a 6-3 loss to British Columbia, a few hours after the Raiders stayed alive by defeating College of Idaho 7-0 in their first elimination game.

The No. 4-ranked Raiders (45-8) would have needed five consecutive victories to win the title after being put on the brink of elimination by Eastern Oregon in Friday’s tournament opener. They got one against the fifth-seeded Yotes (26-18) behind Ayla Davies, who collected her 28th win of the season with a one-hit shutout.

Brooke Nordahl’s two-run bloop double broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning. Kennedy Kila went on to add a pair of two-run singles, finishing 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

The Raiders failed to generate much offense until late against fourth-seeded UBC (25-17), which advanced to play another elimination game Sunday morning against Oregon Tech. The winner of that contest will match up in the championship round with Eastern Oregon, the tournament’s only remaining unbeaten team.

The Thunderbirds went in front with two runs in the fourth inning, getting a leadoff double from Shea Sever and singles from Kaitlyn Kim and Jessica Heutnik. A three-run seventh inning, capped with RBI hits by Sever and Kim, made their lead 6-1.

SOU singled four times in the bottom of the seventh to bring the potential tying run to the plate before UBC pitcher Carleen Murray ended the threat with a strikeout. She earned the save in relief of Sever, who limited SOU to one run over five innings.

Katie Fodge took the loss for the Raiders despite surrendering only one earned run across four frames. Davies had a rocky relief appearance, but left the tournament having broken SOU’s single-season record for strikeouts (215) and tied SOU’s single-season record for shutouts (15).

Faith Moultrie led SOU at the plate with five hits on the day. She went 8-for-13 at the tournament.

There is good news for the Raiders: they’ve won three national championships since the last time they won a CCC Tournament championship. Last Thursday, they were one of 10 hosts named for the NAIA Championships Opening Rounds, which take place May 12-15. They’ll learn which teams are coming to Ashland at 3 p.m. Wednesday.