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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
Lindsey Stripling back in March of 2023
Ashton Cathey (and Piper Love)
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.
Avery Coffin
Player intros, starring Avery Coffin and Gabby Heiken
If you’d told me a week ago, or a month ago, that three CCC teams will make the final ten teams, I would have put money on those teams being SOU, EOU, and OIT. Nope. It’s SOU, UBC, and CoI. This is the first time that three teams from the same conference have made it to the final ten. The CCC was very close to sending five teams, which would have really been bonkers.
The NAIA, stacked the deck against the Cascade Collegiate Conference, by placing all three CCC teams on the same side of the bracket. That means that there won’t be two CCC teams in the winners bracket come Monday the 25th.
The Raiders first opponent will be Cumberlands, who Massey Ratings has as #8 of the ten teams left. (Massey has SOU as #2–not #3.) Massey gives SOU a 66% chance of winning on Thursday.
The #1 team, Madonna, has had an incredibly weak schedule. That includes the Opening Round. According to Massey, Madonna has played zero teams in the top 14. They’ve only played one team in the top 20 since early February, Cumberlands. And they went 1-1 against Cumberlands.
The Raiders, on the other hand, have had 19 games against teams in the top 14.
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.
Brianna McCoy steals second
Look who is coming to Ashland.
#1 Southern Oregon
#2 Texas A&M -Texarkana
#3 Saint Francis (Ind.)
#4 Dordt (Iowa)
#5 OUAZ (Ariz.)
The Raiders first game will be against the winner of Dordt vs. OUAZ. More details here.
Massey Ratings has SOU at #2, Texas A&M at #19, Saint Francis (Ind.) at #18, Dordt (Iowa) at #33, and OUAZ (Ariz.) at #34.
For comparison, Massey has Oregon Tech at #3 and Eastern Oregon at #8.
Glory Pistole
