Williamsburg, KY – In the first two games of the series against the (RV) Freed-Hardeman Lions, the #21 Cumberlands Patriots dropped both contests, 7-0 and 6-0. Coming into Saturday, the Lions' pitching staff had the second-best ERA in the country with 1.14 up against the Patriots' offense who had the most hits in the NAIA with 246.

In total, UC had five hits all of which were singles through the 14 innings of play. In the first game, Tori Malone, Maddie Sickau, Sarah West, and Katie Cheeseman all got hits and in game two, Emily Jasper got the lone hit for the Patriots.

The entire pitching staff saw action in the circle for the Patriots on the day. Lindsey Shope and Kaci Goedde came in as the final pitchers in each game and only gave up a run each with seven innings combined. Abby Whelan and Paige Parker also limited the Lions hitters in their four innings of work combined giving up just one earned run between them.

In game one, Freed-Hardeman put up five runs in two innings off three hits, one of which was a three-run home run and a trio of walks. Cumberlands equaled the Lions' three hits through three innings, but stranded five runners on base.

Parker entered the game in the fourth and pitched the inning giving up no hits and no runs. Then in the fifth inning, Shope came to the circle seeing the first MSC game of her career. She went the final three innings surrendering just four hits and having one run earned against her.

Freed-Hardeman picked up two more runs, one in the fourth and sixth inning to defeat the Patriots 7-0.

With Whelan in the circle, UC got a three up, three down inning to start off the second game. However, in the second inning, the Lions tallied four runs off three hits and three errors from the Cumberlands' defense.

UC's best inning of the day came in the third inning, led by a walk issued to Hailey Wood and a single in the 5-6 hole by Jasper. The Lion's catcher tried to pick off Wood at second, but she took off for third base with Jasper moving up 60 feet as well. Two hitters would be retired and then Sickau was granted first base after being hit by a pitch to load the bases. However, a strikeout from Brittany Adair, one of her 13 in the game ended the UC threat.

The Lions scored another run in the fourth inning which entered Goedde into the game. She got three straight outs to escape the inning despite a runner on third base. Goedde then dealt two more scoreless innings, only surrendering one run in the seventh inning while striking out a pair of batters. The game would end in a 6-0 victory for Freed-Hardeman marking the first time this season the Patriots have lost back-to-back games without scoring a run.

Both teams will play the rest of the series, on Sunday March 21 with game three starting at 1 pm ET. Live stats can be found here, and live video can be found here. 
 
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