POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. – The Three Rivers College Lady Raiders completed a 2-0 sweep over Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in record-breaking fashion.

The Raiders completed 12 total home runs in their back-to-back victories, beating the Wolves 14-1 and 12-4.

"I don't know if we have ever had that many in one day," head coach Jeff Null said. "That doesn't happen all the time, obviously, but we had a good day. The wind was blowing out a little bit and our hitters were ready to go today. That's just what we are capable of. We've hit quite a few home runs this year, but that was pretty impressive. It doesn't always happen like that, but it is fun when it does."

The Raiders now have 49 total homers this season.

They started the day with almost a complete shutout over the Wolves in the first game.

Jayce Jarvis got the team started, hitting a solo home run out to left field as the very first at bat in the first inning. Fellow Farmington, Missouri native Jayden Tucker followed up with a home run on her first pitch in the same inning. These two home runs gave the Raiders a 3-0 lead.

In the second inning, with the bases loaded, Cardwell, Missouri native Kylie Walker hit a grand slam to give Three Rivers an 8-0 cushion.

Ralyn Kelley joined the fun with a double-run homer in the third inning, extending the lead to 11-0.

In the fourth inning, Tucker came back for more, hitting her second home run of the game and making the score 13-0.

They concluded this first game in the fifth inning, after MCC spoiled the shutout with a scored single.

Walker and Tucker led the Raiders. They both went 2-3 with four RBIs and two runs. Tucker finished with two home runs while Walker had one grand slam.

The Three Rivers defense was nearly flawless in the first game behind Addison Cooper's pitching. They only performed one error throughout, while Cooper only allowed three hits. In comparison, the Raiders had 11 hits.

The home run derby continued into the second game. While the Wolves scored two runs in the first inning. Walker answered back with a solo home run. They trailed 2-1 after the first, but Walker's home run sparked another hitting frenzy.

Ava Brock joined the home run club in the second inning, a lone one to tie the game at 2's.

Jarvis would come back to hit her second home run of the day to give the Raiders a 3-2 lead.

Following those two homers, Tucker came back for her third hit over the fence.

Brock followed this up with her second home run, this time a double-scoring homer, extending their lead to 9-2 to close out an eight-run second inning.

The Wolves would record their first home run of the day in the third inning, a solo run to bring the score to 9-3.

Addison Fulbright responded in the fourth inning with her first home run of the day to join the fun, once again extending Three Rivers' lead to 11-3.

Finally, in the sixth inning, Fulbright called the game with a walk-off homer to make the final score 12-4.

"This was a region game, so these were big games for us," Null said. "That moved us to 5-1 in region play. It's always a big thing to defend your home turf. That set us up really well, towards the top of our region. We really needed to get these. I'm tickled to death by both of our pitchers, throwing great games. Cooper almost had a shutout. Adelle [Uhlmeyer] settled in for us in the second game and the team picked her up. It helps when you hit like that, it makes the pitchers relax a little more on defense."

Uhlmeyer finished with two strikeouts in a closer-hitting match-up, where Three Rivers recorded 14 total hits and had three strikeouts at the plate. Defensively, the Raiders were still almost flawless behind their pitcher, once again with only one error.

Null hopes to carry this performance over as they enter more Region play in the coming weeks.

"Our biggest thing was confidence," Null said. "We're going into region play, so we just need to be confident in hitting. Coming off a loss to [Jefferson College] last game, we lost 3-0, it was nice to get back into the win column. Doing the way we did, with 12 home runs, was also pretty fun."

Kaelin Triggs - Daily American Republic