POPLAR BLUFF – The Three Rivers baseball team had a four game series against Crowder on Sunday and Monday, but came out on the losing end in all four games. The Raiders are 0-8 thus far in Region XVI play.

"Crowder is a very good ballclub and there's a reason that they're favored to win the national championship," Three Rivers coach Tyler Smith said. "We've couldn't really do anything this weekend. Our bats came around late, but we couldn't pitch or defend. When you can't defend against a good team like them, you're giving them extra outs and that translates into runs for them."

On Sunday, the Raiders dropped game one 15-0 in five innings and game two 12-1. In Monday's twin bill, the bats had a little more life in them as the Raiders had taken a 3-1 lead in the fourth, but Crowder took advantage of a nine run fifth to secure a 13-5 win.

Cade Cancilla went 1-for-4 with a couple of RBIs in the first game on Monday.

In the second game of the afternoon on Monday, the Roughriders took advantage of a four-run sixth to put the game out of reach by a score of 10-1. Charlie Parker drove in the Raiders' lone run in the first inning of the ballgame.

Three Rivers will look to bounce back on Thursday as they'll host two against St. Louis Community College. They'll travel north to finish the four game set against the Archers on Saturday.

"St. Louis plays a lot like we do," Smith said. "If we're able to keep our mistakes down and pitch well, we should be fine the rest of this week."

In softball action, Three Rivers hosted Arkansas State on Saturday and swept the doubleheader 9-1 and 8-3.

The Raiders put on a little bit of a home run derby as Kyla Puckett hit a pair of big flies along with a homer by Karlye Happold in the first game and Happold went deep again in the second game.

In the circle, Makale Floyd picked up the win in game one and Makayla Bryant won game two.

The Raiders (13-3) were supposed to play Monday, but those games were postponed. They'll be in action this weekend at Metropolitan CC in Kansas City.

Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic