NEOSHO, Mo. —Three Rivers had its streak of three straight series sweeps come to an end Sunday.
Facing No. 16 Crowder in a Region XVI matchup, the Raiders dropped a close first game 3-1 before falling 15-2 in five innings on the back end of the doubleheader.
Three Rivers (15-15-1) kept the first game close throughout. After hitting a leadoff single, Beau Burson scored on a sacrifice fly from Ty'Reik Thomas to get the Raiders on the board first. In the bottom of the second, Colten Nix scored on a passed ball, a mistake in the midst of an otherwise good game defensively for the Raiders. Brinson Williams followed with an RBI single to put Crowder (25-9) ahead for good.
Cameron Tissue added an insurance run with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the sixth inning.
River Hunt fared pretty well in his start on the mound against a top-20 team. He allowed five hits in five innings of work, allowing three earned runs and striking out two.
"River competed well and gave us a quality start on the mound," Three Rivers coach Stacey Burkey said. "We out-hit them 6-4 but stranded some runners that would have been nice to get across the plate in the fourth and fifth when it was a one-run game. One of those games that could have gone either way."
A.J. Calhoon gave up one hit in one inning on the mound with one strikeout.
The second game was much more lopsided.
Through two innings, Crowder had distanced itself from Three Rivers with a 9-1 lead on the way to a 15-2 win in five innings. The Roughriders scored in every inning except the fifth while holding the Raiders scoreless for four innings.
"We allowed them to get some big innings started by walks and errors," Burkey said. "Then, their hitters were able to get some aggressive swings. Offensively, we couldn't put enough together to overcome that."
The Raiders committed two errors and couldn't make up for some inconsistency on defense, getting shut down at the plate, too. They tallied four hits and allowed 13. No one in the lineup recorded multiple hits for the Raiders.
Elvin Diaz pitched 1 1/3 innings and allowed six hits and five earned runs with one strikeout and a pair of walks. Nash Winters pitched an inning and gave up three hits, three earned runs and struck out a batter.
The teams will finish the series with another doubleheader, starting at noon on Monday.
Nate Fields - Daily American Republic