Lady Raiders stay perfect in month of April with sweep of Crowder

Another softball team stepped up Wednesday and fell to the hot Three Rivers Lady Raiders.

The Lady Raiders continued to push forward as the squad extended its winning streak to 14 games with a sweep over Crowder College at J.D. Rains Field. In addition, TRC has not lost a game in the month of April.

The Lady Raiders snagged a shutout 6-0 victory in the opener, then won the second matchup 5-1. With the wins, Three Rivers improves to 34-7 on the season.

“This win was big for us because Crowder is one of the top teams in our region, so to knock them off and defend our home turf is a big deal,” Three Rivers coach Jeff Null said. “Our defense was solid all day, but our hitting has elevated the past few games. I think this team has gotten over the nerves, and now they’re just having fun and want to win.”

Karlye Happold kicked things off in the first game by blasting one over the fence for a two-run homer to give the Lady Raiders a quick 2-0 lead. Stepping up with the first at-bat in the bottom of the second, Trista Grobe connected with a fly ball over right field for another homer for the Lady Raiders.

Three Rivers continued to rack up multiple runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Lady Raiders made their way across home plate, thanks in part to several Crowder errors. With A.J. Agers on the mound, Crowder had difficulty connecting for hits, making this first matchup a cakewalk for the Lady Raiders.

Agers threw 100 pitches, 79 for strikes with six strikeouts while only allowing five hits throughout the first game. Happold led the Lady Raiders with two hits and three RBIs, while Ann-Marie Simpson, Grobe and Agers all connected with a hit.

“We really put ourselves in a great position to take an early lead, but AJ was lights out all day,” Null said. “She was really solid with shutting them out, and then she was able to get us out of a jam to close them out the rest of the way.”

In the second game, the Lady Raiders started slow but quickly made enough plays to come away with the win over Crowder.

After both teams went scoreless in the two innings, the Lady Raiders connected in the bottom of the third with a bombing two-run homer from Kyla Puckett. With its only run of the day, Crowder finally scored off a double from Bailey Ast, bringing the score to 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth.

Stepping into the bottom of the fifth inning, Puckett hit Crowder with a dagger over the fence to land another two-run homer and extend the lead to 5-1 for the Lady Raiders. For the remainder of the game, Three Rivers didn’t allow Crowder to get past second base as TRC stepped up defensively to close the game.

Puckett led with two hits and four RBIs in the nightcap, while Lexi Davis connected with two hits and Josie Bezzole with one.

After winning 14 consecutive games, Null said he doesn’t take it for granted as he understands the difficulty of keeping a run like this going.

“It’s so hard to win this many in a row because with one bad game or bad pitching out, it can be over just like that,” Null said. “It’s really been our team’s performance lately. We’ve thrown some good pitches and got some great hits. I’m so proud of them. We’ve constantly put ourselves in a good spot, but we just got to keep working.”