SOU Softball Earns NAIA Honors, Gold Gloves After World Series Run
Southern Oregon softball finished No. 5 in the final NAIA rankings after a 45-win season, with national honors for Ayla Davies, Lexi Ramirez, Ari Williams and Kalea Thomas.
ASHLAND, Ore. — Southern Oregon University softball added several more honors to an already impressive 2026 season, closing the year ranked No. 5 in the final NAIA Top 25 coaches’ poll while collecting multiple All-America, Gold Glove and World Series team selections.
The Raiders finished 45-15 overall, won their first Cascade Conference Tournament championship in six years and advanced to the NAIA World Series for the eighth time in nine seasons. SOU swept through the NAIA Opening Round and carried a 16-game winning streak into the final day of its season, outscoring opponents 118-23 during that run.
SOU was never ranked lower than No. 6 during the season and has appeared in the final NAIA poll each of the last 10 years. The Raiders have finished among the top six nationally in eight of those seasons.
Southern Oregon pitcher Ayla Davies delivers during the 2026 season. Davies earned another NAIA All-America honor after helping lead the Raiders to a 45-win season and another trip to the NAIA World Series. Photo by Al Case / Ashland Daily Photo.
The postseason recognition included another All-America nod for sophomore pitcher Ayla Davies, who was named to the NAIA All-America third team after going 27-9 with a 1.96 ERA. Davies, the 2025 NAIA Pitcher of the Year, led the nation with 28 complete games and ranked second nationally in innings pitched with 224 2/3. She also ranked third in wins, 12th in strikeouts with 192 and 13th in shutouts with six.
Davies finished the season strong, winning 13 consecutive decisions beginning April 17. During that stretch, she posted a 1.12 ERA, completed 11 of 12 starts and struck out 69 batters over 81 innings. She will enter her junior season with a career record of 65-14 and a 1.53 ERA.
Junior utility player and pitcher Lexi Ramirez also earned national recognition, landing on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association NAIA All-America second team. In her first season with the Raiders, Ramirez batted .336 with 10 doubles, two triples, two home runs and 34 RBIs while getting on base at a .408 clip.
In the circle, Ramirez went 12-5 with a 2.71 ERA in 24 appearances, including 19 starts. She ranked second on the team in innings pitched, strikeouts and complete games, while holding opponents to a .251 batting average. She allowed one or no earned runs in 11 starts.
Southern Oregon’s Ari Williams and Lexi Ramirez were named NAIA Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners by the NFCA after helping anchor one of the Raiders’ strongest defensive units during the 2026 season. Image courtesy of SOU Sports Information.
Ramirez’s season also included one of SOU’s two NAIA Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, as she was selected as the pitcher on the NFCA’s all-defensive team. Senior center fielder Ari Williams also earned a Gold Glove, making SOU one of only two NAIA programs with multiple representatives.
Williams did not commit an error all season and recorded a team-high four outfield assists. Ramirez, who also played first base, posted a .990 fielding percentage. Both players started 58 games for the Raiders.
As a team, SOU finished with the 13th-best fielding percentage in the NAIA at .971 and allowed just 24 unearned runs. The Raiders averaged only 0.7 errors per game, with just nine NAIA teams committing fewer errors per contest. Over the final five weeks of the season, SOU played error-free defense 13 times.
Williams also contributed at the plate, batting .348 with three home runs, a team-high 18 doubles, 46 runs scored and 45 RBIs. She and Ramirez were both All-Cascade Conference performers.
Southern Oregon right fielder Kalea Thomas bunts during the 2026 season. Thomas was named to the All-NAIA World Series Team after a standout postseason and finished the year on an 18-game hitting streak. Photo by Al Case / Ashland Daily Photo.
Redshirt-freshman right fielder Kalea Thomas was also honored following a standout postseason, earning a spot on the All-NAIA World Series Team. Thomas went 5-for-12 with three RBIs and a run scored in three games at the World Series in Columbus, Georgia.
Across 10 postseason games, Thomas batted .575 with 23 hits, seven RBIs and 10 runs scored. She recorded multiple hits in nine postseason games and ended the spring on an 18-game hitting streak. During that stretch, she batted .559 with six extra-base hits and 21 runs scored.
Thomas finished the season with a .413 batting average, the third-best mark in the Cascade Conference. She ranked ninth nationally in hits with 85, 51st in stolen bases with 27 and 57th in runs scored with 50. She was previously named to the All-CCC first team and was recognized as an NFCA All-Region performer.
Madonna University of Michigan finished No. 1 in the final NAIA poll after winning its first national championship. The Cascade Conference was well represented in the postseason rankings, with College of Idaho at No. 7, British Columbia at No. 9, Oregon Tech at No. 12 and Eastern Oregon at No. 13.
The honors were not limited to the field.
The Cascade Conference also recognized Southern Oregon’s sports information department with the Mike Booth Award for College Sports Communicators Staff of the Year. Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information Josh McDermott and Assistant Sports Information Director Isaac Fernandez received the award for the second consecutive year after helping tell the story of five top-seven national team finishes for SOU during the 2025-26 season.
The department also helped host multiple championship events during the year, including Cascade Conference championships in beach volleyball, soccer, women’s wrestling and track and field multi-events, along with an NAIA Softball Opening Round bracket.
For a department that spent the spring documenting Raider wins, postseason runs and national honors, the award was a fitting reminder that some of SOU’s strongest work this season happened both on the field and behind the scenes.
Editor’s Note: Kudos to the SOU Sports Information team. They do extraordinary work telling the stories of their teams, consistently coming through with timely, detailed information — no easy feat when covering 17 different men’s and women’s sports on and off campus. I tip my ball cap to Josh, Isaac and the rest of the SI team. Congrats on a season well done. ~Brian.
Cover image: Southern Oregon University softball closed the 2026 season ranked No. 5 in the NAIA after a 45-win campaign, a Cascade Conference Tournament championship and another trip to the NAIA World Series. Photo courtesy of SOU Athletics.
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