By KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – The Carroll College Softball team got off to a slow start in the first round of the 2025 Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship, falling 3-0 to No. 14 Eastern Oregon at Stilwell Stadium on Friday afternoon.
The Fighting Saints (18-25) simply couldn’t find any consistency at the plate, coming away with just a pair of singles in the opening round loss to the third-seeded Mountaineers (29-9).
Carroll ace, Kennedy Venner (Billings, Mont. / JR), fresh off of her second First Team All-CCC honor of her career, got off to a slightly shaky start in the opening frame before leveling out back to her dominant ways later in the game.
Raygun Klippert, who leads the Mounties in batting average, led off the bottom of the first with a single, prior to stealing both second and third bases. Katelynn Evans drew a walk, then stole second to put pair of runners in scoring position early for EOU. Madelyn Durham drove in the first two runs of the game from the three-hole, doubling into the gap in left center, before eventually coming home herself on a fielding error later in the frame to give the Mountaineers a 3-0 lead after one.
From that point forward, Venner would hold the Mounties to just one hit, but the damage done in the first would prove insurmountable for the Saints.
Carroll finished the afternoon loss with just a pair of singles, one from Kati Slater in the opening frame (Yamhill, Ore. / JR), and one from Honorable Mention All-CCC selection Sammie Labrum (Kalispell, Mont. / JR) in the top of the fourth.
EOU’s Kylie Parsons improved to 14-0 on the year, tossing a complete game shutout with nine strikeouts.
The Saints will now await the results of this evening’s games to determine their opponent in a loser-out game tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. (MDT).
Visit www.carrollathletics.com tomorrow for a full recap of the action, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.
