KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Subscribing to the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series Champion theme of 'Why Not Us', No. 20 College of Idaho softball team reached the championship series of the 2022 Cascade Collegiate Conference Softball Championship with four-straight wins before a 1-0 loss to No. 1 seed/No. 4 Oregon Tech on Sunday afternoon.
The snow did not dampen the spirits of the Yotes, who finish the regular season with a 41-15 mark as they secure a spot in the NAIA National Tournament despite the loss. To reach the championship series, College of Idaho reeled off four-straight wins, including an 8-2 win over Eastern Oregon to begin Sunday's efforts.
Game 1
The recipe for its winning efforts was in full effect as College of Idaho posted an 8-2 win. The two teams split the four regular season meetings, Mar. 29 and Apr. 5 with the home team each coming away with two wins.
The recipe for its winning efforts was solid pitching and potent hitting. The solid pitching for College of Idaho came in the circle by way of
Hannah McNerney, who picked up her 15
th win on the season. McNerney picked up a complete game, allowing six hits and striking out three on the way to the win.
Offensively,
Haley Loffer went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI to pace an 11-hit attack. The Yotes also got two more hits from
Tanner Higgins,
Hattie Hruza and
Kaylee MacDannald. Hruza scored twice to go along with a RBI in the win.
Down 2-1, College of Idaho came to bat in the bottom of the fourth after turning a double play to erase an EOU threat and plated five runs on five hits including a two-RBI single by Loffer for a 6-2 lead. The Yotes added a run in the sixth and the seventh for the final margin of 8-2.
The win advanced College of Idaho to the championship series against Oregon Tech, later in the day.
Game 2
Snow delayed the start of the game as the two first team all-CCC pitchers –
Katelyn Wilfert from College of Idaho and Sarah Abramson of Oregon Tech.
The host Owls stranded two base runners in the first and third innings to keep the game scoreless. The Yotes loaded the bases with back-to-back singles and a hit-by-pitch to start the fourth inning until Abramson got a pop out and a pair of strikeouts to end the College of Idaho threat.
College of Idaho put together another threat in the fifth and sixth before a strikeout by Abramson kept the Yotes off the scoreboard.
The Owls managed to score the winning run in the eighth inning on a Jayce Seavert fielder's choice with the bases loaded.
