The floodgates opened for No. 10 Southern Oregon in extra innings of Game 1 and stayed that way through Game 2 in a quality Cascade Conference sweep of No. 19 Eastern Oregon on Saturday at Hermiston High School.
The Raiders (11-3 overall, 5-0 CCC) won the opener 6-5 in eight innings, breaking out with four runs in an extra frame punctuated by Ashton Cathey’s two-run home run. They tallied 16 hits in a 13-5 Game 2 romp, where Cathey homered for her third consecutive outing and Rylan Austin went 4-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Riley Donovan was 5-for-7 with six RBIs on the day and started the Game 2 scoring with her third home run of the year, a two-run shot. She’s helped the Raiders average 9.4 runs in CCC play as the only remaining unbeaten team.
The Mountaineers (11-5, 3-2) forced extras in the opener when Jessica Touchard hit a two-run double to break up Cayla Williams’ shutout bid with one out in the seventh. In the top of the eighth, Deja Acosta led off with a walk before Sammie Pemberton’s second double of the contest, setting up a Donovan go-ahead sacrifice fly. Williams tacked on with an RBI single, and Cathey came up next with a homer that made it 6-2.
SOU hung on in the bottom of the inning despite the first five Mountaineers who came to the plate singling. Katie Machado came on for Williams in the circle with the bases loaded, no outs and a 6-4 lead. After Gates Leatherwood’s sacrifice fly, she got Truh Merriman to line into a game-ending double play.
Williams got the win to improve to 5-1, and Machado went to 4-1 by keeping EOU to two earned runs while going the distance in Game 2.
Deja Acosta had two hits and three RBIs in the contest, Donovan drove in four runs and Cathey had an RBI double in addition to her second homer of the day. Faith Moultrie added two hits and three runs scored.
The Raiders scored in every inning and threw up five runs in the seventh. The Mountaineers had entered the day with a 1.80 team ERA.
The teams will play two more in Hermiston on Sunday – a CCC counter at 11 a.m. followed by a non-conference game.
Content used with permission, compliments of SOU Sports
Photo by Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo.
