BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2 SALEM – Southern Oregon stayed in the Cascade Collegiate Conference softball title chase and at the same time made Corban's pursuit of a postseason tournament berth a little more difficult by sweeping a Monday afternoon doubleheader at Warrior Field.

The visiting Raiders broke a season-long homer slump with four long balls to win the opener, 14-6, and then made several run-saving defensive plays in the late innings to take the second contest, 8-7.

Southern Oregon improves its season record to 10-10 and is now 9-3 in the league while Corban falls to 19-15 overall and 6-10 in the CCC.

SOUTHERN OREGON 14, CORBAN 6

Southern Oregon hit its first four homers of the season, including a trio of three-run blasts, in rolling to the first-game victory.
Julia Willison got things started with a three-run homer to left-center field in the first, Megan Scherer hit hers in the fifth, and Sierra Anderson finished off the three-run homer barrage in the seventh inning. Brianne Craig, the winning pitcher, hit a solo homer leading off the sixth.

Corban hit two home runs and both were by seniors. Courtney Castronovo slugged her sixth of the season leading off the second, and Lounette Jackson added a two-run homer in the sixth.

The Raiders finished with 15 hits, including three by Scherer and two apiece by Alexa Gonzalez, Sulie Augustine, Willison, Anderson and Craig.

The Warriors picked up 10 hits including three by Jackson and two each by Owen and Castronovo. Jackson had a strong game at the plate with a home run, two doubles and three runs batted in.

Craig went the distance for the Raiders to improve her record to 4-3. In addition to allowing 10 hits she walked three and struck out three.
Jessica Slate also had a complete game for Corban, allowing 10 earned runs, walking three and striking out four and is now 4-4 this season.

SOUTHERN OREGON 8, CORBAN 7

The second game started the way the first one ended for the visiting Raiders as Willison, taking advantage of two Corban errors, drilled a grand slam home run over the left field fence. All four runs were unearned, and in fact Southern Oregon added another in the inning on Kassie Smith's double just inside the third base bag.

Corban got back into the game in the bottom of the second with five runs of its own. McCayla hit her third homer of the season with a runner on to make it 5-2, and then with two out and the bases loaded Kyrianna Sorensen drilled a triple to the fence in right center to tie the game at 5-5.

With the Raiders batting in the top of the fourth, the umpires called a timeout to discuss whether or not the motion of relief pitcher Jessica Gutwig was illegal. The delay stretched past 20 minutes, and when play finally resumed Southern Oregon scored three runs on one hit, one error and four walks before Danielle Horne came on in relief. Anderson provided the key hit, driving a two-run double into the right field corner.

Now trailing 8-5, the Warriors – in particular Castronovo – responded an inning later. With Sorensen on base following a single, the senior right fielder ripped her second homer of the day, a majestic two-run drive over the scoreboard in left-center field, to get her team within a run at 8-7.

With Horne keeping the Raiders off the scoreboard through the final three innings, Corban saw a couple of potential game-tying hits turned into out by the SOU outfield. Centerfielder Tyler Burke, who in the first game robbed Sorensen of extra bases, went into the right-centerfield gap to turn a potential game-tying extra base hit by Owen into the final out of the sixth inning.

Shelby Mauermann led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, but again the SOU defense was up to the task. Sorensen, who hit the ball hard all day long, laced a drive to right-center that Alyssa Fielding grabbed with a full-out dive. Mauermann advanced to second on a ground out, but was left there when the game ended on another ground out.

Karlie Stephens, who entered the game in relief in the second, improved her record to 2-1 by allowing just two runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings. She walked no one and struck out four Corban batters. After collecting 15 hits in the opener the Raiders managed just six hits against a trio of Warriors pitchers.

Sorensen was 2-for-4 with three RBI to lead the Corban offense.

The Warriors return to conference action at 2 p.m. Friday when they play Concordia in Portland.