Ally Hendricks can't help but laugh at her success this season. The Three Rivers College sophomore hit her team-leading seventh home run Tuesday as the Lady Raiders swept St. Louis 5-2 in the opener and 7-4 in the nightcap at Rains Field. After graduating from Poplar Bluff High School, Hendricks rode the pine as a freshman. She appeared in 29 out of 60 games, and earned just 19 at-bats. A late-inning substitute, Hendricks had multiple at-bats in just two games. She did well when given an opportunity and was third on the team with a .316 batting average. She was just last on the team in opportunities.

This is the part where the Hollywood script plugs in the montage of Hendricks working from sun up to sun down, Rudy Reuttiger style, to prove herself to the doubters. But this isn't what happened. She came to the field and hit with her dad, but not very much. She has put in some extra batting practice with coaches this spring, but was she expecting seven home runs at the midway point? "No. Not really," Hendricks laughed. "But I'm happy with that." Tuesday's blast, a go-ahead, two-run line drive over the centerfield wall, put Hendricks on pace to have a shot at the Three Rivers single-season home run record of 15, set last year by Destiney Bolen.

Bolen had eight home runs through 31 games, and 10 home runs by April 5. Hendricks has six home runs in the past month, and five since March 19. Along the way, Three Rivers' No. 6 batter has boosted her batting average to .400. She's also tied with Lexi Morris for the team lead with 31 RBIs and her .769 slugging percentage is nearly 200 points higher than anyone else on the team. "There were new coaches, so I wanted to make sure I could work hard and prove myself to them and earn a spot on the team," Hendricks said of her preseason attitude. Null has said he likes keeping Hendricks in the No. 6 spot in the lineup because she'll see more fastballs there. Hendricks, who is also tied for third on the team with 10 strikeouts, has had trouble at times against off-speed pitches.

After a routine win in the opener, Null had trouble getting the Lady Raiders (16- 15) motivated in the nightcap. "The first four innings, I didn't feel like we were playing at the level we can play at. I was frustrated with them and I let them know that," Null said. St. Louis (20-6) took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning after a pair of Lady Raider errors, then tacked on another run in the fifth. Lexi Morris drew a leadoff walk for Three Rivers in the bottom of the sixth inning and Courtney Slayton singled. MaKayla Lamphier tied the game with a double to the gap in right-center field, and then Hendricks lined a shot over the center-field wall. Shaina Merrick walked, stole second, and set the final score on Wiley Lowry's pinch-hit single. "They kept plugging away and then we finally had our big inning there," Null said. Carleigh Burnett (8-5) allowed five hits and two walks with five strikeouts in the complete-game win. In the opener, Lowry (7- 7) gave up six hits, one walk and a hit batter with five strikeouts in the completegame win. "We gave up a run or two there at the end where we got a little sloppy on defense," Null said. "Wiley was excellent. Defensively, we were good the first five innings of the game. Offensively, we had a couple of big hits." Lowry also had a tworun homer in the second inning, her third home run of the season. Morris added a solo home run in the third as Three Rivers never trailed.