PORTLAND — In the late 1980s and early ’90s, filmmaker Spike Lee’s alter-ego, Mars Blackmon, was a pitchman for Nike’s Air Jordan shoes. And his catch-phrase — “It’s Gotta Be The Shoes” — described how Michael Jordan was so successful on the basketball court.

Lower Columbia College head coach Tim Mackin is superstitious when it comes to softball rituals, including the color of shoes his Lady Devils wore during the NWAACC Softball Championships.

On Friday, LCC wore its red shoes while cruising to victory over Everett and Blue Mountain in the tournament, but switched to blue shoes for Saturday’s tournament quarterfinal and semifinal games at Delta Park.

Mount Hood pitcher Lauren Hadenfeld twirled a perfect game at the Lady Devils as the Saints claimed a 1-0 victory in the quarterfinals, and a bushel of errors in the fourth inning of their consolation game against Southwestern Oregon led to their elimination from the tournament following an 8-3 loss.

The setbacks ended LCC’s season at 37-5 and snapped their championship winning streak at three.

“Ringor (Athletics, a sporting apparel manufacturer) gave us the blue shoes we wore today, and we’ll never wear them again,” Mackin said. “Next year, it’ll be strictly red shoes.”

Mount Hood 1, Lower Columbia 0

Hadenfeld, a sophomore from Vancouver’s Evergreen High School, needed only 80 pitches (57 of them strikes) to notch the perfecto, which included 11 strikeouts. Only four LCC batters were able to work Hadenfeld to a 3-ball count, with three of them striking out.

“She threw a great game,” Mackin said of Hadenfeld. “She had every pitch working her curveball, change-up and rise were all going for strikes. We’ve faced them four times this season, and we knew it was going to be tough winning a fifth time. We didn’t make any adjustments at the plate in order to get hits.”

In their previous four meetings, LCC swept the Saints by a combined score of 19-7.

LCC pitcher Tasia Trochim dodged bullets in each of the first three innings after leaving a total of four baserunners in scoring position. Trochim scattered eight hits and struck out five, but her luck ran out in the fifth inning.

After striking out Lacey Olesen to start the frame, Trochim surrendered a slap single to leadoff hitter Bre Thomas, who later stole second and third. One out later, Ashley Lokey singled to score Thomas.

“I told Gee (LCC catcher Ashlee Gieseke) to intentionally walk Lokey if they had a 3-ball count on her,” Mackin said. “Tasia threw a pitch that was outside, but apparently it wasn’t far enough outside.”

Trochim’s offering was wide of the plate, but Lokey leaned into the pitch and lined it through the middle of the infield and into center field.

Southwestern Oregon 8, Lower Columbia 3

A series of miscues — both physical and mental — in the fourth inning led to the Lady Devils’ season ending without a chance at a tournament title.

Gieseke staked the Lady Devils to a 1-0 lead with a solo homer over the center-field fence in the second inning, but the Lakers from Coos Bay responded with eight runs in the fourth inning.

Meg Harasymczuk, Annaleisha Parsley and Amanda Volgarino opened the inning with consecutive singles to load the bases, and Megan Delapp followed with a bloop single to left that plated Harasymczuk.

Rebecca Davidson followed with a single to score Parsley, and Krista Vincent was safe on an infield throwing error by shortstop Sam Petrich. The game turned ugly for LCC when first sacker Camy Way retrieved the ball and threw to third base to get one of the Laker runners, but her throw sailed over Jamie Bolin’s head and toward the LCC dugout.

One SWOC runner scored on the throw, and two more scored moments later when Kaila Johnson hit a bouncer back to pitcher Aly Rae, who fired the ball over catcher Kim Paollili’s head to the backstop on an attempted force play at the plate.

The Lakers reloaded the bases on a pair of ground balls hit to the left side of the infield. Instead of the LCC defenders throwing the ball to first, they checked the runner at third, which allowed each runner to reach base safely.

With the bases loaded, the next SWOC hitter hit a sharp grounder to Bolin, who rifled her throw high and off Paollili’s glove to the backstop for another Laker run.

SWOC closed out their scoring with a long sacrifice fly to center field.

LCC managed seven hits off Laker pitcher Chelsea Talbert, but had only one inning with more than one hit. The Lady Devils scored twice in the sixth when Laura Thorp and Petrich hit consecutive singles, and both scored when Paollili belted a single to right field.

“We just didn’t hit the ball in either game, and it’s hard to come back after having a tough loss like we had against Mount Hood,” Mackin said. “I knew they (the Lakers) would be a contender in the tournament because their pitchers were throwing well at the end of the season.”

Thorp, Petrich and Gieseke finished with two hits apiece.