Third-seeded Raiders open seventh tourney trip in eight years against Marian (Ind.) on Thursday

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A quick read of Southern Oregon’s collection of championship banners indicates that odd-numbered years portend success in the NAIA Softball World Series.

Based on its body of work, SOU should have more than the calendar working in its favor over the next week at the South Commons Softball Complex.

The 2019, 2021 and 2023 national-champion Raiders (48-8) are back in the final 10-team, double-elimination bracket for the seventh time in eight years. As the tournament’s No. 3 seed, their run at a fourth title begins at 10 a.m. Pacific Thursday against No. 6-seeded Marian (Ind.) (47-7).

The opener, as always, is critical. The shortest path to a title is four consecutive wins, but the SOU-Marian loser would have to win seven consecutive elimination games to come out on top.

SCOUTING MARIAN: The Knights and Raiders are well-acquainted postseason foes. The bulk of both current rosters were around when SOU visited Marian last year for the Opening Round and won both matchups, 6-1 and 9-2, to advance to the World Series. Marian senior Olivia Stunkel, who will soon be a three-time All-American, was the losing pitcher in the first of those matchups and hasn’t lost since: She is 29-0 with a 1.97 ERA, bringing her career record to 76-8. She has a 3.60 ERA over her last six starts, but the lineup behind her is generating 7.4 runs per game. The Knights, batting .368 as a team, have four regulars at .420 or better and four with at least 20 extra-base hits. (For comparison, the most any Raider has is 15.) Their key run-producers are first baseman Lily Wendt (.440, 25 XBH, 60 RBI) and left fielder Abbey Hoffman (.426, 27 XBH, 50 RBI, 30-31 SB).

The Knights were No. 13 in the final NAIA Top 25 and earned a share of the Crossroads League championship with a 31-5 record. They went on the road to win their Opening Round bracket as a No. 2 seed, outscoring top-seeded host Northwestern (Iowa) 19-2 across two matchups on the heels of a Crossroads Tournament run in which they plated 32 runs in three games. They’re 3-2 all-time against SOU; they defeated the Raiders in the 2016 Opening Round and the teams split a pair of games at the 2018 World Series. This is the Knights’ seventh World Series appearance overall and sixth in the last decade. They’ve yet to log a top-four finish.

IF THEY WIN: The SOU-Marian winner will get a day off before playing at 4 p.m. Pacific Saturday against either No. 2 seed Georgia Gwinnett, No. 7 seed Eastern Oregon or No. 10 seed Reinhardt (Ga.). EOU and Reinhardt meet Thursday for the right to play Georgia Gwinnett at 4 p.m. Friday. Georgia Gwinnett (46-8) is armed with 2023 NAIA Pitcher of the Year Annalise Jarvis, whose 0.83 ERA is the second-lowest in the country behind teammate Kailynn James (0.82), and is in the World Series for the third consecutive season and looking to avenge last year’s two-and-out showing. The Grizzlies lost the opening game of the 2023 World Series to SOU, 5-3.

IF THEY LOSE: The SOU-Marian loser will play its first elimination game at 7 a.m. Pacific on Friday against the EOU-Reinhardt loser. The Raiders are 2-3 this season against EOU (35-9) — those five games were decided by a total of seven runs and required eight extra innings — and the Mountaineers are fresh off eliminating defending champion Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) in the Opening Round. Reinhardt (32-10) was the lone No. 5 seed to get out of the Opening Round.

SOU SHORT HOPS:

♦ In six postseason games (including the CCC Tournament), Faith Moultrie leads the Raiders with a .550 average (11-for-20) and four stolen bases. Kennedy Kila (8-for-21) has team-highs of three extra-base hits and six RBIs.
♦ Three players who started SOU’s championship-clinching game in 2023 — center fielder Sarah Kerling, left fielder Kailer Fulton, and shortstop Sammie Pemberton — are on the active roster. Kerling was an All-Tournament selection that year after going 7-for-10 with five runs scored, and Hailey Seva made the All-Tournament team last year after going 4-for-9 with two doubles. Fulton is 8-for-25 with six runs scored in her World Series career, while Pemberton has played six consecutive error-free games at the final site. Pemberton also ranks third in SOU history with 44 career doubles, 10 of which have come in postseason play.
♦ Ayla Davies (31-4, 1.19 ERA), the first freshman ever to earn the Cascade Conference Pitcher of the Year award, was dominant while handling all 19 of SOU’s defensive innings in the Opening Round. She compiled 26 strikeouts (including an SOU record-tying 14 in the opener) compared to five walks, surrendered 15 hits, and posted a 1.84 ERA. Three of her four losses this season have come in extra innings, including one in the 10th and another in the 15th. She leads the NAIA in wins and innings pitched (236), ranks fourth in strikeouts (241) and seventh in ERA. Davies has allowed one or no runs in 22 of 31 starts and tossed 28 complete games. Her 15 shutouts are tied for the most in Raider single-season history.
♦ Kerling (.444), Fulton (.438) and Moultrie (.421) have led the Raiders to a .357 team batting average, up from .331 last year. Kerling has 29 multi-hit games this season, Fulton has 23 and Moultrie has 17.
♦ What the Raiders lack in power — they’ve hit 17 home runs, fewer than any SOU team since 2016 — they make up for with speed and defense. They’ve stolen more than five times as many bases (145) as their opponents and committed one-third as many errors (38) as their opponents.

TOURNAMENT TRIVIA:

♦ Of the 10 teams at the final site, only four were top seeds in their Opening Round brackets. The Nos. 1, 2 and 5 teams in the final NAIA Top 25 poll all failed to advance.
♦ Each of the last 11 championships have been captured by top-four seeds. The No. 1 seeds have won five of those. This year’s No. 1 seed, Cumberlands (Ky.), enters the tournament on an 18-game winning streak but lost 8-6 to SOU on Feb. 22.
♦ Only three teams in tournament history have claimed at least three titles: Oklahoma City (11), Simon Fraser (B.C.) (4) and SOU (3). Only three more have won at least two. SOU and OCU are the only teams in this year’s field that have won a championship.
♦ The Raiders are 21-8 at the World Series since debuting under coach Jessica Pistole in 2017. No other team has more than 14 World Series wins in that stretch. Including Opening Rounds, the Raiders have won 15 of their last 17 national tournament games.
♦ Since 2017, the Raiders are 23-4 in national tournament elimination games. As the No. 10 seed in 2024, they dropped their first game and went 1-1 in elimination play.