News

National Tournament Hopes on the Line

05.05.2011

Tournament Champion Earns Bid to Gulf Shores, Alabama

The opening contest of the 2011 Cascade Conference softball championship has third-seeded Concordia University facing two-seed Corban University on Friday, May 6 in a loser out matchup hosted by regular season Cascade Conference champion Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls, Ore. with first pitch set for noon. The winner of the contest between the second and third seeds will face Oregon Tech in a three-game series to earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NAIA Championships.

Oregon Tech's Taylor Schmidt was named to the 2011 first team all-conference squad. (photo by Kelly Caleb)

No. 19 ranked Oregon Tech finished the regular season with a 19-5 conference record and a 33-12 overall mark. Coming into the tournament the Owls rank first in batting average (.312), runs scored (282), hits (371), RBI’s (255), doubles (64) and homeruns (48), while defensively rank first in fielding percentage (.967) and second in ERA (2.24). In the circle Jackie Imhof ranks second in ERA (1.68), while teammate Taylor Schmidt is ranked third at 1.99 on the season. Imhof set a school-record and currently ranks first in the CCC in strikeouts (196), innings pitched (150), wins (17) and saves (4). Schmidt’s 16 wins ranks second in the CCC. Junior infielder Ashleigh Larson leads the league in RBI’s (62) and doubles (12) and ranks second in hits (52) and homeruns (14).

Corban's Stephanie Nippert is the 2011 CCC Player of the Year

Corban finished the regular season ranked second in the CCC with a 16-8 record and 24-15 overall. The Warriors rank second in the conference in team batting (.311), third in team pitching (3.53) and second in team fielding (.965). Stephanie Nippert ranks second in the conference with a .464 batting average and leads the conference with a .976 slugging percentage, 58 hits and 18 home runs. Emma Winckler leads the team and ranks ninth in the conference with a 3.34 earned run average, while Makenzie Marchbanks ranks fourth with 94 strikeouts, 127 innings pitched and 11 wins.

Ali Paz earned first team all-conference recognition for Concordia.

Concordia finished third in the CCC standing at 15-9 while going 22-14 on the year. The Cavaliers come into the postseason with a conference-best 2.11 ERA and rank third in fielding (.951) and fourth in both batting average (.306) and hits (313). Ali Paz leads the CCC in batting average (.472) and on base percentage (.551). Pitcher Renee Santos ranks first in ERA (1.26), third in strikeouts (140) and holds opponents to a .149 batting average.

The tournament champion will then earn the conference's automatic bid to the NAIA Championships, which are slated for May 19-25 in Gulf Shores, Ala.

2011 Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament Bracket

Friday, May 6

Game 1 – Noon

#2 Corban vs. #3 Concordia

(Loser eliminated)

Game 2 – 3 p.m.

Winner Game 1 vs. #1 Oregon Tech

(First game of best-of-three series)

Saturday, May 7

Game 3 – Noon

Winner Game 1 vs. #1 Oregon Tech