| The above will search Ashland Daily Photo. |
Kierstin Grotewiel
While the coaches leaned heavily on when teams were eliminated at the 2026 NAIA Softball World Series, giving Southern Oregon a final rating at #5, Massey Ratings, which does a much better job of considering strength of schedule and other factors, has the Raiders at #2.
Final 2026 NAIA softball rankings according to Massey
2026 SOU Softball Team
Which team will show up–the Raiders or the Sandbaggers?
SOU was 5-7 against EOU, CoI, and Oregon Tech before the Cascade Conference Softball Tournament. In the tournament, against those same three teams, they went 3-0, outscoring them by a combined 17 to 3 runs.
Kierstin Grotewiel
Kierstin Grotewiel receiving one of Ayla Davies 14 strikeouts (in 7 innings) earlier this week
#1 seed SOU needs just one win tomorrow to be one of the 10 teams to advance to the 2025 NAIA Softball World Series in Georgia. Many of the other #1 seeds will not be there.
The NAIA screwed up and made Eastern Oregon University a #2 seed. Massey Ratings (below) had Eastern as #7 in the country so they should have been a #1 seed. They got through to the World Series. Northwestern was a #1 seed according to the NAIA even though Massey didn’t have them in the top 15. Needless to say, they aren’t going to Georgia. There are some other examples of Massey being more accurate than the biased coaches.
Several games are still to play tomorrow so a couple more teams will be Xed out on the list below.
2025 Massey Ratings NAIA Softball
Kierstin Grotewiel
At 11 a.m. things will begin, again, in the 4th inning.
Kami Klapp
@SOURaiders @SOU_Softball @kamiiklapp @kiersting2023
2 & 4 p.m. starts for today’s games which have been moved to Ashland. (11 a.m. & 1 p.m. tomorrow)
Kierstin Grotewiel
2024 SOU Softball Team
@SOURaiders @SOU_Softball @GabbyHeiken @KerlingSarah
The Raiders were firing on all cylinders yesterday, beating two different teams by a combined score of 31-1. After a couple of early season losses, Massey dropped them in the ratings, but they are back up to #2. Vanguard and Hope International, who Southern Oregon will be playing later this week on the road, are both in Massey’s Top 10 so those should be interesting contests to watch.