COLUMBUS, Ga. – With their collegiate softball careers on the line, Oregon Tech seniors
Mckenzie Staub,
Lexi Klum and
Kaila Mick stepped up in a big way, leading the Lady Owls past Cumberlands, 4-2, in the completion of yesterday's suspended game to advance in the NAIA Softball World Series at South Commons Softball Complex.
Tech (49-11) will meet either No. 7-seed Jessup or No. 8 seed Madonna at 2 p.m. (PDT) – with the winner playing immediately after against the loser of No. 1-seed Our Lady of the Lake and No. 6-seed Science and Arts for a spot in the national title game. The 2 p.m. game will be carried on 104.3-FM and 960 Sports in the Basin and nationally on ESPN3 - with a Watch Party in the OIT College Union (Mount Mazama Room). If Tech plays in the 4:30 p.m. game, the radio broadcast will shift to 92.9-FM and 1150-AM KAGO.
Staub picked up her second save of the season, working out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and working around a 2-out single in the seventh – as the Patriots (49-9) stranded 11 runners in the contest.
Klum finished 3-for-3 – two hits yesterday and a sharply hit single today – part of a 10-hit OIT attack.
Mick got the 21st and final out – making a diving catch on an Emily Bryant liner – to end the game.
The game was delayed yesterday by 44 minutes at the outset, with RBI singles from Staub and
Malia Mick giving the Owls a 2-0 second inning lead. Following a nearly 4-hour lightning delay, Klum lined an RBI single and
Jayce Seavert lifted a sacrifice fly to push the margin to 4-0 in the third.
UC plated a run on an RBI ground out in the third – just before play was halted for the night. OIT starter
Kacie Schmidt faced a jam to start this morning, with runners at second-and-third with two outs, but coaxed Makenzie Keatts to pop up on the first pitch of the day.
The Patriots squandered a bases loaded, one out chance in the fourth, as Schmidt got a pop up and deflected a lined drive come-backer – getting the final out at first. In the sixth, UC loaded the bases with two outs, but Jade Gainer, the Mid South Conference Player of the Year, popped up to end the threat.
Schmidt earned the win for OIT, her 27th victory of the season.
With the victory, the Lady Owls are guaranteed no worse than a fourth-place finish in the tournament.
