KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Last season, Mckenzie Staub picked up her biggest win of the year in the title game of the NAIA Opening Round Tournament – sending Oregon Tech to the NAIA Softball World Series. A year later, the junior one-upped her effort, picking up three wins in the circle and hit a 13th inning go-ahead home run, helping the Lady Owls claim their third-straight Cascade Conference Tournament championship at Stilwell Stadium.
 
Needing three victories to earn the title, the Lady Owls (47-7) reached the title game with a walk-off 7-6 win over Southern Oregon, before outlasting College of Idaho, 5-4, in the marathon game. Staub closed out the day with a 3-hitter in the winner-take-all finale with C of I, earning an 8-2 victory – their third-straight title win over the Coyotes.
 
The right-hander combined to throw 18 innings on the day, limiting opponents to two runs on eight hits, pushing her wins total to 22.
 
Game 1 of the day nearly was OIT's last, as the Owls squandered an early 4-1 lead, as SOU (42-11) took advantage of three errors in the third inning, plating five runs to claim a lead. The Raiders would hold the margin until the seventh, when Jayce Seavert led off the inning with a single and Lexi Klum launched her first homer of the season to tie the game.
 
Staub would reach on an infield single and pinch runner Maddie DeVerna was bunted to second and moved to third on a ground out. Nita Cook kept the rally alive, taking first on a hit-by-pitch. Zoe Allen would end the game with a base hit into the hole at shortstop, plating DeVerna with the winning run.
 
Both Allen and Kaila Mick had two hit games for Tech in the win over SOU – improving to 5-0 this season against their rival.
 
OIT earned a rematch with C of I (46-8) and erased an early 1-0 Coyote lead – as Cook tied the game in the second with an RBI single, taking the lead on a Klum squeeze bunt in the third.
 
Leading 4-1, the Owls saw the lead evaporate in the sixth – as two errors led to a 3-run inning for the Yotes, but Tech was able to strand the go-ahead run at third.
 
The teams combined for six-straight scoreless innings – though C of I had a runner at third in the seventh and 11th innings and OIT got a runner to second in the 12th – but neither team could score. In the 13th, Staub led off with a solo homer to break the stalemate and followed by working around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning to close out the win.
 
Maggie Buckholz was 3-for-6, with Staub and Mick each recording 2-hit games. Hannah McNerney pitched 10-plus innings for C of I, allowing just two runs, but took the loss.
 
The second title game was all OIT, taking a 6-0 lead after four innings and rolled to the victory.
 
Seavert led off the second with a triple and Klum gave Tech the lead with an RBI single. Run-scoring singles from Puakea Milbourne and Allen capped the 4-run inning, while sacrifice flies from Staub and Mick in the third and fourth extended the margin to 6-0.
 
C of I got two runs back in the fifth on a Haley Loffer 2-run homer, but the Owls answered in the bottom of the inning, as Staub singled home a run and Milbourne followed with an RBI double. A pop out with two outs in the seventh to Milbourne ended the contest – setting off a victory celebration.
 
Milbourne had two hits in the title game for OIT, part of an 8-hit Lady Owl attack.
 
Tech will learn the three opponents that will make the trip to the Basin for the NAIA National Championship Opening Round on Wednesday, with tournament play set for May 15-17.