LA GRANDE, Ore. – Kristine Schmidt limited Eastern Oregon to one hit over the final five innings and Oregon Tech battled back from an early deficit to topple the Mountaineers, 5-3, to claim the outright Cascade Conference regular-season title at Peggy Anderson Field.
 
The Lady Owls (40-6, 20-4 CCC), who also won the non-conference series finale, 9-3, earned the host site for next week's CCC Championships, with the event to run May 1-3 at Stilwell Stadium.
 
In the winner-take-all title tilt, EOU (37-9, 18-6) struck first – as Brylin Field and Elizabeth Heinz recorded back-to-back 2-out RBI singles in the second to give the hosts the edge. However, Schmidt did not allow another hit until the seventh inning, giving the Tech offense a chance to respond.
 
OIT answered in the fourth, as Puakea Milbourne singled in a run and Sawyer Stenson tied the game with an RBI double, with Milbourne scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. The Owls made it 5-2 in the sixth, as Brooklyn Loose clubbed her third homer of the season.
 
EOU got a run back in the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate, but Schmidt got Hope Burke to line up to end the game.
 
Stenson was 2-for-4 in the victory, with Schmidt working around four walks to claim her 17th win.
 
Game 2 was all OIT – scoring the first nine runs of the game – as Jenna Gorden took a shutout into the sixth inning, striking out five for the win.
 
Tech scored single runs in the second, third and fourth – as Hayden Rockwell delivered a run with a ground out, Addison Kachnik lifted a sacrifice fly and Rockwell added an RBI single. Stenson lined a run-scoring single and Loose doubled home another to make it 5-0 in the fifth, with Milbourne capping a 4-run sixth with a 2-run homer – pushing her career RBI total to 200.
 
Rockwell was 3-for-4 and both Stenson and Loose were 2-for-3 in the victory – as the Owls clinched their seventh-straight 40-win season.