BOX SCORE

PORTLAND, Ore. – Freshman Liane DeHart (Kent, Wash.) roped a single to right center to drive home fellow freshman Erica Fitzgerald (Beaverton, Ore.) with the game-winning run, as Corban's softball team advanced to the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship Series with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Southern Oregon Friday at Delta Park.

With today's heroic victory, Corban pushes its school-record winning streak to eight games and improves to 23-21 overall. Meanwhile, Southern Oregon has its season come to an end with a win-loss record of 16-23.

Four different Warriors – DeHart, Fitzgerald, freshman Stephanie Nippert (Rocklin, Calif.), and senior Rachel Kazmierski (Eugene, Ore.) – all recorded hits for Corban, while junior pitcher Makenzie Marchbanks (Sweet Home, Ore.) went the distance allowing one earned run on five hits to go along with a pair of strikeouts.

In the opening inning, Southern Oregon got a one-out walk from Justine Fulton before Meghan Laughlin roped a double down the left field line. Looking to score an early run, Fulton attempted to put the Raiders on the scoreboard but was thrown out at the plate on a perfect relay throw from senior left fielder Rebecca Franke (Pendleton, Ore.) to Fitzgerald to freshman catcher Tamara Feb (Oregon City, Ore.) for the inning's second out. On the play, Laughlin advanced to third before coming home with the game's opening run one batter later on a single up the middle by Bailey Price for an early 1-0 SOU lead.

Corban would not register a hit until the bottom of the fifth inning on a Kazmierski single to left field before getting on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth on a run-scoring single to center field by Nippert that allowed junior Jessie Jones (Gladstone, Ore.) to score from second to tie the score at 1-all.

In Corban's final at-bat, Fitzgerald would start things off with an infield single before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by Franke. Jones would then draw a two-out walk before DeHart ended the game with her second game-winning hit in the past two weeks for the come-from-behind one-run win (2-1).

Laughlin would lead all players with a 2-for-4 performance for Southern Oregon, while Karri Johnson went the distance for the Raiders allowing two earned runs on four hits to go along with a game-high four strikeouts.

Corban will take to the diamond later this afternoon – Friday, May 7th – against the NAIA's No. 4-ranked and top-seeded Concordia beginning at 3:00 p.m. in the first of a three-game series to decide the conference's automatic berth to the NAIA Softball Championships.