ST. LOUIS — Twice delayed due to rain, the Raiders finally played their regularseason finale against St. Louis, but were forced to turn the doubleheader into a single game. With the threat of road closures due to flooding, the Raiders needed to get home. Christian Deen and Adam Brown were unable to make the trip because of flooding, leaving the Raiders with 13 players. Deen was unable to make the drive to the college from Campbell. Brown was driving up from his home in Harrison, Ark., and had to turn around at Thayer. Three Rivers ultimately lost to St. Louis 10-0 in five innings.
Three Rivers will play at top seed Jefferson in the sub-regional round at 2 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday in a best-of-3 series. If a third game is needed, it will immediately follow game two. Jefferson won 3 of 4 against the Raiders in the regular season and all three wins were by at least eight runs.
Three Rivers coach Stacey Burkey added that the times are subject to change with Jefferson County dealing with flooding, as well. Tuesday's game ended about 4 p.m., and the Raiders were getting reports that the roads going home would be closed off shortly after rush hour traffic. "We felt like it was the right decision to try to beat that back home before those highways were closed and we didn't have access back here," Burkey said.
Three Rivers was going to be the No. 8 seed in the postseason, and with the win in the opener St. Louis secured the No. 3 seed, so the nightcap would not have impacted the standings. Even after leaving early, Burkey was worried about being stuck. "When we got out in traffic and got stopped in six lanes I was pretty concerned … 270 was just a mess. There were a lot of people going south and it wasn't very quick at all," Burkey said. As the team went south, Burkey noticed the water had come up just since the morning, particularly when crossing bridges in Arnold and Greenville. "There was concern with these kids, especially close in the area, about their family and their friends," Burkey said. "Just something that is not normal to deal with, for sure."
The Raiders are meeting today with plans to go fill sand bags on the south side of Poplar Bluff. The practice schedule for the rest of the week is tentative. "We'll hit inside and try to keep our arms in shape by throwing a little bit when we can," Burkey said. "It's kind of hard to have practice going into our sub-region at this point, but we'll do a little bit." Three Rivers (13-28, 7-22 Region XVI) had three hits against St. Louis, one each by Garyn Stewart, Ryan Hunter and Ty Gordon. The Raiders also drew three walks and stranded the bases loaded in the fourth inning and runners on second and third in the fifth. Three Rivers stranded eight runners total, six of them in scoring position. Three innings ended with a strikeout. Tyler McLevain (5-4) pitched four innings in the loss and gave up four runs off six hits. He had three strikeouts and no walks. Toby Miller pitched 1 1/3 innings and allowed four hits and three walks with one strikeout. The Raiders were down a run in the fourth before St. Louis scored in each of the final three innings. The Raiders had trouble getting out of innings and allowed seven runs with two outs.