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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
Dark Side of the Moon (May 27, 2026)
Oliver Wood (and Jano Rix) of The Wood Brothers @ The Holly Theatre (May 6, 2026)
Fresh Ison
My resident hummingbird (May 16, 2026)
Ghost of Xmas future
Elysia Duarte
After yesterday’s victory, the Raiders get today off. Sunday’s game time has changed to 11:30 a.m. PT. Next year is the last year for the games to be played in Columbus, Georgia. Hopefully, they pick a new place without the horrible weather that happens in Georgia this time of year. Instead of calling the weather “extreme” or “severe”, they should call it “usual” as this happens every year.
2026 NAIA Softball World Series Bracket
Massy gives SOU a 68% chance of beating either Southeastern or College of Idaho.
Pandion haliaetus
I headed over to Hyatt Lake last week in search of bald eagles. I didn’t see any, but there was other wildlife to commune with.
The lake was much lower than it was this past September. I would have thought that it would be a bit higher this time of year. I checked with A.I. and this was the result:
“April – May (Peak Capacity): Hyatt Lake usually hits its highest water levels of the year in May.
June – August (Drawdown Phase): Water levels drop quickly. TID heavily releases stored water during these months to irrigate crops throughout the Rogue Valley.
September – October (Annual Low): The lake hits its lowest levels of the year by October. In severe drought years, the reservoir has historically been drawn down to nearly empty (less than 2% capacity).”
Not good news…
Ashland, Oregon (April 2026)
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.