Softball | 04/11/25 | 9:33 AM

HELENA, Mont. - The Carroll College Softball team is back on the road, as they begin their final two-week road trip of the season this weekend in La Grande, Ore. where they'll play a four-game series with No. 11 Eastern Oregon.

The Fighting Saints (13-15, 8-8) will face their toughest stretch of their season over the next eight days, playing a pair of ranked teams and a make-up doubleheader on the back end, starting with the No. 11-ranked Mountaineers (21-4, 17-1) this weekend in La Grande.

With the 2025 season down to its final three weeks, the Saints control their own destiny when it comes to postseason play. Entering the weekend, Carroll is No. 6 in the CCC standings, tied at 8-8 with British Columbia. The Thunderbirds hold a tiebreaker over the Saints for at least another week, as the two schools will meet in Spokane to make-up their rained-out final two games from a couple of weeks ago. Both teams at the moment sit two games clear of Warner Pacific in the seventh spot, but Knights made up ground last weekend with their 2-1 series win over Carroll in Helena.

On the other end of the postseason race, the Mounties enter the weekend battling for the No. 1 seed in the upcoming CCC Championship. EOU has been stellar this season, entering the weekend with a 17-1 mark in conference play and holding a slim one-game lead over NAIA No. 1 Southern Oregon for the conference lead.

The Mounties have been getting it done on both sides of the field, featuring one of the conference's best pitchers in Kylie Parsons and the CCC's second best team batting average at .336 throughout the lineup.

Kennedy Venner (Billings, Mont. / JR) and Kenna Thomas (Belgrade, Mont. / SR) both had great showings in last weekend's series and will look to carry momentum into this week. Venner tossed 15.0 innings with no earned runs and just eight hits, while striking out 19 batters in two dominant outings. Thomas hit the first Carroll homer in several weeks, finishing her Saturday with four RBI's on a 5-7 effort at the plate.

Carroll took one of the three conference games between the schools a year ago in Helena, and will look to stay in the win column this weekend as they make one final push for postseason seeding.

First pitch on Friday is slated for 3 p.m. (MDT) with the second game to follow. Saturday's doubleheader will start at 12 p.m. (MDT).

All four games this weekend can be streamed live HERE, and live stats can be found HERE.

Visit www.carrollathletics.com each night for a recap of the action, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.

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