POPLAR BLUFF – It was a beautiful day for baseball at Roger Pattillo Field and the Three Rivers fans that came out had plenty to cheer about as the Raiders swept Thursday's twin bill against Williams Baptist JV 9-4 and 12-0. The Raiders have won three straight ballgames.
"We finally swung it well and the pitching did well on the bump," Three Rivers coach Tyler Smith said. "It was really good that we didn't have to use a lot of arms, Briar (Fischer) threw four and a third innings in the first game and Levi (Fischer) threw four innings in the second game. It's good that we get to save our bullpen for the four games we have coming up on Friday and Saturday."
The Raiders were able to manufacture 21 runs on the day thanks to some aggressive play on the base paths.
"That's how we're able to manufacture most of our runs," Smith said. "We did hit three home runs today which was a little out of character for us. But our offense can do a lot of things as long as we don't strike out and we did a good job of limiting the amount of K's against us."
In the first game, the Raiders were up 4-3 with the bases loaded in the fifth and Nolan Self cleared the bases on a little floater to left that was mishandled by the left fielder. After the Eagles responded with a run in the sixth Kolten Poorman hit a two-run shot over the fence in left-center to put the Raiders up by five going into the final inning. Poorman went 3-for-4 with four RBI's in game one.
The Raiders didn't mess around in game two, putting up half of their run total for the second game in the first inning and didn't let off the gas in order to end the game in five innings. Trent Buchanan led the offense in game two going 3-for-3 with a home run, four RBI's and two runs scored. Cade Cancilla also had a good game going 2-for-2 with three RBI's and a run scored.
Three Rivers will be back at it at home Friday and Saturday as they'll play a four game set against Marshalltown.
"Marshalltown will be a good competitive team for us," Smith said. "It was originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but we decided to move it up to take advantage of the good baseball weather we'll have Friday and Saturday. Playing baseball in 60 degree weather is better than playing in 30 degree weather."
First pitch for both doubleheaders is scheduled for 12 p.m.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic