KIRKLAND – Northwest plays its first home games of the season against Southern Oregon Saturday and Sunday at its new primary home for the season: Bellevue High School.
The Eagles host Southern Oregon at 1 p.m. both days.
Northwest's first 12 games of the season come against schools with a combined record of 40-8. After games with 14-0 Oregon Tech and No. 17 College of Idaho, the Eagles have four games with No. 1 Southern Oregon.
Southern Oregon is 21-2 all time against the Eagles and has won the last 18 games in the series, dating back to 2015.
SOU took all four games of the series in 2019, the last time the teams met.
Nicola Fish,
Jessica Nunes, and
Sam Parisio had multiple hits in that series.
Starlynn Ripley got her first NU at-bats last week and now leads the team with a .500 batting average (2-4).
Sammi Caron is hitting .286, and
Nicola Fish is batting .278.
Sam Parisio has the team's lone home run this season, and Fish leads with three runs batted in.
Northwest has used three different starting pitchers, led by
Sydney Maurer, who is 0-3 with a 5.25 earned run average and eight strikeouts in 16 innings.
Top-ranked Southern Oregon is 15-1 overall and 3-0 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference after a sweep of Bushnell. The Raiders won all four games in five innings each with a combined score of 53-7.
Southern carries a team batting average of .368 with a 1.75 team earned run average. Allie Stines leads a quarter of .400 hitters at .475, with Lauren Quirke batting .473 with a team-leading three home runs and 23 RBIs.
Hannah Stark, Gabby Sandoval, and Lauren Quirke have combined for 96 strikeouts in 100 innings and have held opponents to a .214 batting average.
