The Dordt University softball team's historic and record-breaking season comes to end with a 10-2 (6 innings) loss to No.6 Southern Oregon in the championship game of the NAIA Softball Championship Opening Round - Ashland Bracket played this afternoon at Laurel Park in Ashland, Ore.
The Defenders end the season with a program-best 42-14 record, crushing the previous record for wins in a season (35) set in 2023. Dordt was making their second overall national tournament appearance and first since the 2001 season.
Dordt was limited to four hits by Southern Oregon sophomore pitcher, Ayla Davies, the reigning NAIA Pitcher of the Year, who improved her record to 26-7 this season. Davies, who was also the winning pitcher against the Defenders on Monday, struck out seven and did not walk a batter.
Aubrey DeShaw went 2-for-2 at the plate and scored both runs for the Defenders. The freshman hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, her third of the season, and finished the Ashland Bracket with a .466 average, going 7-for-15 at the plate with four RBI. Ryee Yager went 1-for-3, extending her hit streak to 10 games, and Tera Lynn Price added an RBI single in the third inning. Both Yager and Price recorded a hit in all five games at the Ashland Bracket.
Yager (21-10), who was the winning pitcher against Texas A&M University - Texarkana earlier in the day, took the loss and gave up six runs on six hits in three innings.
Chloe Kreuz pitched the final 2.2 innings and gave up five hits and four runs.Â
After the Defenders were retired in order in the top of the first, Southern Oregon scored two runs in its half inning on a two-run home run by its No.3 hitter, Brooke Nordahl, her team-leading fourth of the season.Â
Southern Oregon plated two more runs in the second on a two-run triple by Kalea Thomas, scoring both Avery Coffin and Elysia Duarte.Â
Dordt pushed across its first run in the third when DeShaw led off with a double and scored on a one-out single by Price.Â
The host Raiders scored two more runs in each of the third and fourth innings to take an 8-1 lead. Coffin, Nordahl and Kierstin Grotewiel all had an RBI during this time.
DeShaw's solo home run to lead off the fifth inning made the score 8-2 and Kreuz held Southern Oregon scoreless in the fifth. The host Raiders, however, ended the game with a pair of runs in the sixth, the final scored on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Cici Kim.
Southern Oregon totaled 11 hits, three by Kalea Thomas and two from both Nordahl and Avery Coffin. Seven Raiders had at least one hit and six players drove in at least one run. The Raiders advance to the 10-team NAIA Word Series with a 44-13 overall record.Â
Notes:Â
- this was the eighth and final game in the five team, Ashland Bracket, and the second game on day three
- this was the second ever match-up played between Dordt and Southern Oregon
- Southern Oregon defeated the Defenders on Monday, 3-1, in game three of the bracket
- this is the second appearance for the Defenders at the championship (2001)
- Dordt is one of 19 teams in the NAIA with 40+ wins this season
- Yager hit safely in all five games in the Ashland Bracket and finished the season with a 10-game hit streak
- Price has hit safely in six consecutive games
- Program Records Broken / Tied This Season:
- Team (14)
- Batting Average: .356 (previous -Â .325 in 1994)
- Hits: 542 (previous -Â 452 in 2000)
- Doubles: 103 (previous -Â 87 in 2025)
- Triples: 29 (previous - 26 in 2000)
- Home Runs: 65 (previous - 39 in 2025)
- Total Bases: 898 (previous - 687 in 2025)
- Runs Scored: 393 (previous - 279 in 2025)
- RBI: 361 (previous - 259 in 2025)
- At-Bats: 1,521 (previous - 1464 in 2000)
- Slug % : .590 (previous - .473 in 2011)
- Put-Outs: 1.082 (previous - 1,049 in 2024)
- Wins: 42 (previous - 35 in 2023)
- Innings Pitched: 361 (previous - 350 in 2024)
- Strikeouts (pitching): 349 (previous - 263 in 2009)
- Individual Season (13)
- Batting Average: .470 Chloe Kreuz / Rylee Yager (previous - .458, Denise Rowe in 1995)
- Hits: 93 Chloe Kreuz (previous - 73, Chloe Kreuz in 2025)
- Singles: 76 Rylee Yager (previous - 56, Angie Van Essen in 2000)
- Triples: 8 Chloe Kreuz / Tera Lynn Price (matched Brooke Rule in 2025)
- Home Runs: 20 Chloe Kreuz (previous - 15, Lauren Steenstra in 2025)
- Total Bases: 188 Chloe Kreuz (previous - 113, Chloe Kreuz in 2025)
- Runs Scored: 74 Chloe Kreuz (previous - 50, Brooke Rule in 2025)
- RBI: 82 Lauren Steenstra (previous - 51, Chloe Kreuz in 2025)
- At-Bats: 198 Chloe Kreuz (previous - 185, Angie Van Essen in 2000)
- Slug %: .949% Chloe Kreuz (previous - .802, Lauren Steenstra in 2025)
- Wins (pitching): 22 Rylee Yager (previous 19, Abby Kraemer (2023) and Dawn Van Kley (2001)
- Innings: 202.2 Rylee Yager (previous 176.2, Carissa Van Gorp in 2006)
- Strikeouts: 226 Rylee Yager (previous 204, Abby Kraemer in 2022)
- Career Records (7):
- Batting Average - .422 Chloe Kreuz (previous Janna Bouma, 1996)
- Hits - 225 Chloe Kreuz (previous 206, Darci Wassenaar 1999-2002)
- Total Bases - 380 Chloe Kreuz (previous 328, Darci Wassenaar 1999-2002)
- Slug % - .713 Chloe Kreuz (previous .644, Ashton Beaird 2012-15)
- Home Runs - 34 Lauren Steenstra matched! (shares with Ashton Beaird 2012-15)
- RBI - 175 Lauren Steenstra (previous 132 Darci Wassenaar 1999-2002)
- Put-Outs - 1,182 Lauren Steenstra (previous 1,163 Michal Hoogland 2014-17)
