Williamsburg, KY – After winning two games to open the series on Friday, the Patriots won the final two games over Shawnee State for the sweep. This marks the first Mid-South Conference sweep of the season for the Patriots, who have now won three straight MSC series. UC took game three with a 5-0 shutout and won the final game, 4-1.

On the day, Hailey Wood batted .857 with seven hits including going 4-4 in game four. She tallied four RBI. Mackenzie Pawlak went 3-6 between the two games, with two of her hits being doubles. Katie Cheeseman also went 3-6 and picked up the second most RBI on the team with a pair.

Kaiti White pitched her first seven inning complete game of the season in game three, with a pair of strikeouts and limiting the Bears to just three hits. Morgan Radford got the final win of the weekend going 4.1 innings, giving up one run and striking out two. Talli Burgess came in for relief in the final game for 2.2 innings not conceding a run.

GAME THREE: PATRIOTS SHUTOUT THE BEARS, 5-0
UC got their offense going in the second inning, with a two-out rally. Paxton Hoop got it started with an infield single then Tori Malone kept it going with a single through the 5-6 hole to put runners on first and second. Pawlak was the next hitter and loaded the bases off a single up the middle bringing the top of the lineup to the plate. Wood made it back-to-back singles up the middle, scoring both Hoop and Malone for the 2-0 lead.

White then got two consecutive innings of three up, three down from her defense for the third and fourth innings. In the third, White got the first two batters out on strikes, both looking.

This ignited the UC bats in the fourth where they added three more runs, once again on two outs. Meryn Livingston began the inning with a single to right field. Taylor Green pinch ran for her and was moved to third off a sacrifice bunt and a goundout. With Green on third, Pawlak blasted the ball to center field, earning a double and a RBI. Pawlak got to third from a wild pitch and Wood once again came up clutch with a single to right field for her third RBI in the game. Wood stole third during Emily Jasper's at-bat and then when Jasper put the ball in play Wood took off for home and slid in despite the throw at the plate for the 5-0 Cumberlands lead.

The Patriots did not earn any more runs in the contest. Defensively, UC got one more three up, three down inning. White only let one more runner on and earned one more strikeout for her sixth win of the season. The shutout marks the seventh in 2022 for Cumberlands.

GAME FOUR: CUMBERLANDS COMPLETES THE SWEEP OVER SSU, 4-1
In the first inning, UC got it done on both sides of the ball. Radford took care of the entire first frame with back-back strikeouts looking and then a foul popup.

Wood then kickstarted the offense with a single and then heads up base running got her to second. Next she stole third and the Bears tried to throw her out at second but an errant throw allowed Wood to go home and score. Jasper followed it up with a walk and a stolen base herself. Two batters late Cheeseman hit a single to right field to for the RBI to make it 2-0.

In the bottom of the third, Emily Bryant crushed the ball to right field for the double and then advanced to third on a wild pitch during Cheeseman's at-bat. With Bryant on third, Cheeseman picked up her second RBI of the day off a hit up the middle for the 3-0 lead.

After a three up, three down inning in the fourth, UC's offense was started by Pawlak's double to left center. Wood was the next batter and laced the ball to right center for a triple, making it back-to-back extra base hits for the Patriots to extend the lead to four.

 Shawnee State then got their one run of the day off a home run to left field in the fifth to make it 4-1. The Bears got a single in the inning as well bringing in Burgess. The first batter she faced tried to bunt the ball but it fouled straight back to Hoop behind the plate who caught it and she threw to Cheeseman covering first for the double play.

SSU looked to get more runs in the next inning with runners at third and second and no outs. Then Burgess issued two strikeouts in a row and then a popup to Malone at first to get out of the jam. The Bears could not get any runs in the seventh, marking the win for UC to give them the 4-0 sweep. The Patriots are now 23-10 on the season and 10-4 in MSC play

In the four-game series Wood batted .583 with seven hits with two extra base hits, five RBI and five stolen bases. Pawlak had her best week in a UC uniform with a .455 average, leading the team with four extra base hits from three doubles and a triple.

Both White and Burgess did not concede a run against the Bears. For Burgess it marks the second straight year she has not let a Bear cross the plate. This year she threw 6.1 innings across three games, giving up just five hits and striking out six. White went the most innings for Cumberlands in 12.1, giving up six hits and striking out eight, the most on the staff in the weekend. Radford went nine innings with a 1.56 ERA, after giving up one run and putting up seven K's.

The Patriots will hit the road for two games against the Bulldogs of Tennessee Wesleyan, finishing up their series. UC split with them earlier this season and will look to win the series on Tuesday, March 29 with game starting at 2PM.

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