OXFORD, Alabama — Former Grant Union/Prairie City first baseman Raney Anderson is again in the midst of what she hopes will be a deep postseason run.

Just a year removed from a championship run through the Oregon Class 2A high school softball tournament, the College of Southern Idaho freshman and her team now have their sights set on a national championship at the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Softball World Series at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama. The Series began on Monday, May 20, and will end with the crowning of a national champion on Saturday, May 25.

Despite finishing the regular season as the No. 6-ranked NJCAA softball team in the land, the Lady Golden Eagles’ appearance in the Softball World Series was not a sure thing. After failing to win their district, which would have given the squad an automatic berth in the series, Anderson and her teammates had to wait to see if they would receive one of four at-large bids.

Anderson and the rest of the College of Southern Idaho softball team had to watch the live selection show on TV to learn their fate. Anderson would describe the moment captured on video that she and her team found out they’d received an at-large bid as “chaos.”

“I didn’t know how excited I was until after I watched the video,” she said.

The journey from last year’s state championship run to this year’s appearance in the NJCAA Softball World Series has been a quick one for the small town girl now headed to junior college softball’s biggest stage. Anderson said she was initially unsure of where she would fit and how she would get along with her new team, but the women at the College of Southern Idaho along with the coaching staff have quickly taken a role similar to that of her old Lady Prospector teammates and coaches at Grant Union High School — family.

“They’re the closest thing to family I’ve got here, being so far away from home,” Anderson said.

With the early jitters and concerns of acclimating to a new team out of the way, the next step for Anderson was wrapping her head around the fact that she actually belongs and will contribute as a member of the elite College of Southern Idaho team.

Anderson said her coaches routinely tell the team that they’d take anybody on their roster as a starter over anybody else in their region.

“Taking that to heart and not brushing it off your shoulder as something they’re just saying is something that has helped me a lot and it means a lot to know that somebody else believes in me so I have to believe in myself.”

Anderson and the rest of the College of Southern Idaho’s softball team can continue to believe. The squad won its opening game in the double-elimination NJCAA Softball World Series on Monday, defeating eighth-seeded Chatanooga State 7-4 as the nine seed.

Next up for CSI will be the winner of Tuesday’s game between No. 1 overall seed McLennan and Iowa Western. The game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. Central Time (11 a.m. Pacific) start on Wednesday, May 22.