HELENA, Montana - The Carroll College Softball team dropped all four games in a weekend series with No. 5 Southern Oregon this weekend in Helena.

In game one Friday afternoon, the Saints were unable to keep pace with the bats of Southern Oregon, losing 10-3. 

On the offensive side, Jessica Nimmo, Alyssa Lybbert, and Amber Countryman each notched two hits for the Saints. Countryman was able to also notch an RBI and Kaitlynn Ayers was able to take advantage of the hitting in front of her, registering an RBI herself. 

For the Raiders, Cayla Williams had four hits and gathered three RBIs, while Ashton Cathey had three hits of her own with four RBIs.

The big day for Williams did not stop at the plate, however. The Raiders' starting pitcher was able to strike out four Saints and allow only two earned runs through five innings of pitching. 

As for game two Friday afternoon, Carroll kept it much tighter with the Raiders, but still stumbled with a 5-4 loss. On the Carroll side, Amber Countryman stayed hot with two more hits and two more RBIs, while Amber Brewer was good for two hits and an RBI herself. 

The Raiders saw Deja Acosta step up for two hits and an RBI, while Cayla Williams and Riley Donavan each registered a hit and two RBIs to produce their five runs of offense. 

Southern Oregon's bats were stifled by a gutsy pitching performance from Carroll's Kennedy Venner who tossed a complete game, while giving up just four earned runs and punching out eight Raiders in the process. 

Saturday morning's game was one to forget for the Saints. Southern Oregon ran away with a 20-2 win in a run-rule five inning contest. The Raiders jumped out to an 8-0 in the second inning, aided in large part by a grand slam from Lauren Weinberg.

It was a rough go for the Carroll pitchers in the early game. Kennedy Venner, Abbie Amend, and Janey Adair all saw a similar amount of work, but all were unsuccessful in slowing down a potent Raider attack. SOU scored 20 runs on 21 hits, and three home runs. Cayla Williams picked up the win, and went 4-4 at the plate in the process.

Jessica Nimmo provided a spark with a solo shot to straight away center field in the fifth inning, but the effort would prove far too little, too late.

Carroll struck first in the final game of the series. Haley Kampka doubled in the first inning to score Sydnee Paul from second, and Carroll would lead 1-0 after one.

Southern Oregon would quickly erase the lead however, scoring two in the second to go on top, 2-1. The Raiders added two more runs in the fourth inning, before a barrage of home runs and sacrifice flies would break the game open. Riley Donovan and Cayla Williams continued their impressive weekends, combining for three homers over the final two innings to give SOU a 10-1 lead.

Whitney Durocher picked up an RBI single in the sixth inning to narrow the gap to 10-2, but again the Saints would run out of time, falling in a run-rule six inning affair.

The Fighting Saints drop to 10-13 in conference and 14-22 overall, while the Raiders rise to 18-4 in the Cascade and 31-7 overall.

Not all was lost for the Saints on the weekend, as they did not lose any ground in the battle for the final CCC postseason berth.

On deck for Carroll is a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon in Great Falls with Providence at 2 and 4 p.m.

Visit www.carrollathletics.com for a preview of that doubleheader, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.