No. 3-seeded Raiders’ path through  elimination bracket begins Friday morning

COLUMBUS, Ga. — Southern Oregon mustered a few minutes of magic in its NAIA World Series opener on Thursday. Over the course of a three-hour game, the Raiders could’ve used a few more.

Lily Wendt ended a stalemate with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 12th inning that made Marian (Ind.) a 3-2 winner and put SOU on the brink of elimination early at the South Commons Softball Complex. To capture their fourth championship in six years, the No. 3-seeded Raiders (48-9) now need to win seven consecutive games.

The manner in which they forced extra innings electrified their dugout in the moment but compounded their heartbreak in the end. The Raiders trailed 2-0 with two out and nobody on in the bottom of the seventh before five consecutive batters reached base against All-American pitcher Olivia Stunkel. Singles from Kierstin Grotewiel and Brooke Nordahl started the rally, an Aubree Muxen walk extended it, and well-placed hits off the bats of Sarah Kerling and Kailer Fulton tied the score.

They nearly had the game won in the 11th, which Grotewiel led off with a towering drive to left field that Marian’s Abbey Hofmann reached over the fence to retrieve.

Aside from that robbery, SOU stranded six baserunners in extras. The bill came due at the expense of pitcher Ayla Davies (31-5) and her SOU-record 15-strikeout performance. Of her 189 deliveries, 138 went for strikes. And of her five losses this season, this was the fourth in an extra-inning complete game.

The Raiders’ path through the elimination bracket begins at 7 a.m. Pacific Friday against the loser of a game between No. 7 seed Eastern Oregon and No. 10 seed Reinhardt (Ga.). The Knights (48-7) crept within three wins of their first title.

Their ace, Stunkel, matched Davies with a complete game, improved to 30-0, and has still yet to lose since the Raiders defeated her in last year’s NAIA Opening Round. She was afforded a cushion when Hoffman turned on a letter-high Davies fastball in the fifth inning for a two-run home run.

After recovering from the seventh-inning hiccup, the Knights finally rewarded Stunkel in the 12th as Brooke Knox and Hofmann led off with back-to-back singles and a fielding error loaded the bases with no outs. SOU’s Kailer Fulton caught Wendt’s fly ball in shallow left field and one-hopped an on-target throw to the plate, but Knox expertly slid around the tag.

The game was the Raiders’ longest ever in postseason play. Their only previous venture into extras at the World Series was the 2021 championship clincher against Oregon Tech.

That year, they won five consecutive elimination games to steal the title. No team has ever won seven in a row.

Since 2017, SOU is 23-4 in national-tournament elimination games under head coach Jessica Pistole.