Southern Oregon Raiding Way to NAIA National Championships

Photos courtesy Southern Oregon Athletics

As soon as Jessica Pistole exhausted her college softball eligibility, she was handed her first head coaching job. Just 22 years old, Pistole’s former teammates were now under her guidance at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif.

“I had planned to be an assistant after the summer,” said Pistole, who spent her summer teaching English in China. “I was coming back to work with the pitchers. In the fall, the head coach was offered the job at Cal State Fullerton. Somehow the athletic director thought it was a good idea (for me to be the coach).”

An Idaho high school state title and three NAIA national championships later and the decision seems validated. Now with roots firmly planted in Ashland, Ore., Pistole has brought Southern Oregon University to national prominence.

The Raiders’ most recent NAIA title came with a dominant performance in the 2023 10-team, double-elimination bracket. They outscored their opponents 35-2 over four games and culminated their title run with an 11-0, 5-inning win over state rival and top-ranked Oregon Tech.

In fact, Southern Oregon defeated Oregon Tech twice in the national championship tournament in Columbus, Ga., after going 0-5 against the Owls in the regular season and Cascade Conference Tournament.

“We just couldn’t show up to play them,” said Pistole. “It was the expectation we were supposed to (win). Immense mental pressure became bigger than all the time preparing.”

With success comes expectations. In the world of college softball, each year presents new challenges, especially trying to follow up on national championship campaigns.

“We figured out you have to let go of outcomes. It’s not about that,” said Pistole of her 2023 Raiders.

The 2022 Raiders finished 49-14 but did not advance out of the opening round of the NAIA postseason.

“It took us a long time with a new group, feeling the pressure, wanting to live up to expectations, wanting to repeat (as national champions) and to what is expected of Southern Oregon softball,” said Pistole.

With the pressure gone of repeating, the experience of 2022 proved invaluable to the 2023 Raiders. Of their nine regular-season losses, four came to Oregon Tech. The fifth loss to the Owls came in the conference tournament.

Eight days later in its first postseason game, Southern Oregon lost 8-4 to Vanguard (Calif.). The next loss would be the Raiders’ last loss of the season. It just never happened.

“That loss to Vanguard in the opening round gave us our first taste of that feeling like it’s our last game,” said Pistole. “We had nothing to lose. We left it all out there.”

Southern Oregon won its next four games, including an 11-0 win over Reinhardt (Ga.) to earn a return trip to the NAIA World Series.

After an 8-1 win over Georgia Gwinnett, Oregon Tech stood in the Raiders’ way once again. Cayla Williams was ready this time. The senior twirled a three-hit shutout and was aided by Riley Donovan who had three hits and three RBIs in a 10-0 victory.

That pressure-relieving win spurred Southern Oregon to a 9-1 win over Cumberlands (Ky.) and another dominant 11-0 win over Oregon Tech that kicked off a championship celebration.

Pistole Finds a Home at Southern Oregon

Pistole took a circuitous route to Southern Oregon.

She was a highly regarded volleyball and softball player at Del Oro High School (Calif.) and committed to Biola to play volleyball.

At the end of her first collegiate volleyball season, the Biola softball coach invited her to join the program.

“I was burned out on softball (after high school). I was so glad I decided to take the opportunity to play both sports,” she said. “I found my love for the game again.”

Pistole became a three-time All-American pitcher with a career earned run average of 0.79. In two seasons as Biola’s coach, she amassed a 51-46 record before being hired as the volleyball coach at William Jessup in 2006.

“Volleyball has always been there for me. I loved it,” she said. “If I had to be honest, it’s still probably my favorite sport.”

After three years back in volleyball, she proposed the creation of a softball program at William Jessup, where in its second year it won a conference title for Pistole.

After two years with William Jessup softball, Pistole became an assistant coach for the first time in her career at Utah State.

“That was throwing all our eggs in one basket by pursuing a full-time coaching position,” she explained. “It was a great to get that experience of being an assistant. It was a really good for me to walk in those shoes and understand more about my assistants.”

One year later, Pistole was named head softball coach at Twin Falls High School where she led the program to an Idaho 4A state championship. That turned into an offer to take over the Southern Oregon program.

The Raiders Rise

Southern Oregon finished 15-23 in 2014 before Pistole arrived.

“It was a program that had some talented players. I was not starting from zero talent,” she said. “It was establishing and building a culture that really expected excellence.”

The Raiders won 33 games in Pistole’s first season and rose from there, winning 37 games in 2016, 46 games in 2017 and 51 games in 2018 which was capped off by a second-straight appearance in the NAIA World Series.

“Up until that point we were hitting different marks in the program. We were speaking them into existence and doing them,” she said. “We finished fifth at the nationals and then third at the nationals. Most of the whole group had been there (going into 2019).”

That experience was a motivating factor when Southern Oregon returned to the NAIA World Series in 2019 in Springfield, Missouri.

“We were not coming there just to freaking show up. We were coming to win,” she said. “We had veterans and a young group that got us there. The expectation was to win.”

Southern Oregon defeated No. 5 Lindsey Wilson, top-ranked Science and Arts of Oklahoma, the defending national champion, and Oklahoma City to reach the championship where it needed just one more win.

That win did not come easy though. Oklahoma City won the first game 8-4 to set up one final showdown. Then Mother Nature got involved.

Southern Oregon led 6-3 in the fourth inning of the championship game when rain halted play. Eight hours later the game resumed at 9:30 p.m. and the Raiders finished off an 8-3 victory which signaled a shift in power in the NAIA softball world.

“It was pretty special,” said Pistole. “I do remember the first one like it was yesterday. All the work I’ve put in, all the work my family has put in … then it all starts over again.”

That success led to her being hired as the head coach at the University of San Diego, just ahead of the COVID pandemic. She went 15-12 in the shortened season but something did not feel right.

“It was a good opportunity that landed in my lap. It was a tough opportunity to pass up,” she explained. “I had the blessing of the (Southern Oregon) athletic director. The university was really supportive of it. It was a good move for our family.”

Pistole and her husband, Bryan, and their children missed their Oregon lifestyle that was radically different from life in southern California.

“The experience at San Diego was awesome. The administration, the players and the coaches were awesome,” said Pistole. “COVID hit and it changed everything for everybody. It put in perspective where we wanted to be. We came from a mountain town. The kids rode their bikes to school and back home and to the fields. We didn’t want to sacrifice things that we weren’t willing to from a quality of life place.”

Pistole found her job waiting for her back in Ashland and wasted little time continuing Southern Oregon’s transition into a powerhouse.

“The 2021 season was one of our harder years with COVID and trying to figure out how to stay healthy, getting to play and doing what we were trying to do with testing and getting through that year,” said Pistole. “It felt like we beat the world. We never had a negative test and if you showed up at the World Series and anyone tested positive you were done and didn’t get to play.”

Southern Oregon opened the World Series with a 6-1 win over Bethany (Kan.) then lost 6-4 to the College of Idaho. From there, the Raiders scored eight, nine and nine runs in elimination game wins over Mount Mercy (Iowa), Bethany (Kan.) and College of Idaho to reach the championship against Oregon Tech.

“We had to find that next level of grit,” she said. “We knew we were the best team there. We had a lot of returners, experience and talent.”

Southern Oregon, coming out of the loser’s bracket, won the opener against the Owls, 3-2, to set up a one-game finale for the national title – and it was a great one.

Southern Oregon needed nine innings to complete a 7-5 win for its second national championship. The Raiders blew a 5-1 lead in the seventh inning with two outs but regained control when Riley Donovan smashed a solo home run for a 6-5 lead. Tayler Walker’s single plated Olivia Mackey, who tripled, for an insurance run and that proved to be enough.

Donovan finished the World Series hitting .647 (11-for-17) with eight runs batted in.

“It was really fun to experience a totally different journey,” said Pistole of the 2021 title compared to the first two seasons earlier.

The Raiders never left the state of Oregon in the 2022 postseason, falling in the Opening Round twice to No. 10 Grand View (Iowa).

In 2023, Pistole’s offense was powered by Donovan, her team’s senior catcher, while the defense worked behind senior pitchers Cayla Williams and junior Katie Machado.

The program was 20-4 and riding a 9-game win streak when it ran into Oregon Tech for the first time and suffered a pair of losses. The Raiders went 15-1 after that before running into the Owls once again, who swept a doubleheader, 5-2 and 4-3.

Just over two weeks later, Oregon Tech once again defeated Southern Oregon in the semifinal round of the Cascade Conference Tournament.

“(Oregon Tech) is a great team. It was the most consistent Oregon Tech team in a lot of years,” said Pistole. “They were the No. 1 seed all year long.”

That top ranking did not guarantee Oregon Tech a national title, though.

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