Dayton, TN – The 13^th ranked Patriots softball team picked up their 20^th and 21^st wins of the season, defeating Bryan College twice. Cumberlands took game one in six innings, 9-1 then battled back in game two to win 6-3 for the team's seventh straight victory.
 
UC collected 14 RBI from seven different hitters. Leading the way was Meryn Livingston and Maddie Sickau each with three RBI. Both Bailey Turnbow and Carly Oliver blasted home runs, while Makenzie Keatts crushed two doubles.
 
Cumberlands was lights out in the circle, only giving up one earned run across the 13 innings pitched. Kaiti White went five innings in game one, giving up just one run off five hits, and striking out four. Lindsey Shope came in for the final inning, not surrendering a hit to the Lions. In game two Morgan Radford got the start and pitched 3.2 innings, striking out seven batters which ties for her most all season. Talli Burgess came into relief and picked up her seventh win of the season. Burgess went 3.1 innings, limiting the Lions to just one lone hit and striking out a pair.
 
GAME ONE: CUMBERLANDS RUN-RULES BRYAN, 9-1
The Pats started strong, plating two runs in the first frame of the game. Hailey Wood led things off getting on base from a hit by pitch and then swiping second. She moved up from a flyout and then Keatts put down the perfect squeeze bunt to score Wood and have Keatts aboard safely. Emily Bryant was the next batter and she rattled off a single, pushing Keatts to third. A deep fly ball from Sickau to centerfield, allowed Keatts to score for the 2-0 lead.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, White got two hitters to go down on strikes, one swinging and one looking. Bryan was able to earn two hits, picking up one run to make it a 2-1 game.
 
After three groundouts on defense in the bottom of the third, UC got the offense going in the fourth. Turnbow led the inning off with a bang, launching the ball to centerfield for her third home run of the season. Two batters later, Kaysee Dale started a two out rally for UC, with an infield single. Wood followed it up with a double in the gap to score Dale. Then, Oliver kept it going, waiting back on a changeup and blasting it over the left field fence for her team best, fourth homer of the season. The home run added on two more runs for the 6-1 UC lead.
 
A three up, three down inning on defense kickstarted Cumberlands on offence, picking up two more runs. In the top of the fifth, Bryant started the inning with a single and then was moved to third from Turnbow's double. With runners in scoring position, Mackenzie Pawlak squared up a squeeze bunt to score Bryant and advance Turnbow to third. Livingston made sure to score Turnbow with a single to make it 8-1.
 
In the sixth inning, in true UC fashion a bunt led to chaos on the basepaths. Oliver got the bunt down which allowed Wood to go from second to third. Wood then tried to take home but was thrown out. Oliver was heads up and looked to take second and the Lions tried to stop her, but an errant throw by the catcher let her slide into third. Then the throw from the centerfielder went to the side and Oliver got up and came home with the run-rule in effect at 9-1.
 
Shope entered the game in the sixth and gave up a leadoff walk, but settled into the game, getting two flyouts and a groundout to close it out.
 
GAME TWO: UC DEFEATS BC, 6-3
Radford looked good in the circle from the very beginning of the game, she struckout two batters in the first inning then struckout five of the next six outs to already have seven Ks through just three innings of work. 
 
However, the Lions took advantage of an error and three hits to earn their first lead of the game in the fourth. With the Lions up, 3-0, Burgess entered the contest and got the first batter she saw down on strikes.
 
The UC offense was quiet in the fifth, but then really got going in the sixth to mount their comeback. Keatts started the inning with a double that hit the top of the left center fence. Bryant got a single to put runners on the corners. This brought up Sickau who came up big, blasting a double to get UC on the board and put two runners on for Turnbow. The Cookeville, TN native once again came up clutch for the Pats with the RBI single to score Bryant and advance Sickau. Pawlak was the next batter and she put the ball in play, scoring Sickau and keeping two runners on. Then the pattern continued for UC, getting down the squeeze bunt. Paxton Hoop took a high and inside pitch, but got the bunt down to score push Turmbow and Pawlak up 60 feet, both into scoring position. Up next was Livingston who had the hot bat and connected for the second double of the inning, bringing in both Turnbow and Pawlak for the fourth and fifth run of the frame. This big inning put the Pats up 5-3 for their first lead of the contest.
 
The Lions looked to get momentum back in the bottom of the sixth, with a leadoff single. But the next batter hit the ball to Oliver at second, who tagged the runner and threw over to Turnbow at first for the double play. 
 
The big inning in the sixth for the Pats brought up Keatts again as the leadoff batter in the seventh. And Keatts had the same result, a leadoff double. A passed ball and then deep a fly ball to centerfield from Sickau scored Keatts to extend UC's lead to 6-3 heading into the final half inning. 
 
Burgess shutdown the BC offense, getting two groundouts and a fly out without giving up a hit. 
 
The games today, were the final of a four game season series against the Lions. Cumberlands took all four games with three run-rule victories. The Pats outscored the Lions 34-7 in the games.
 
After nine games on the road, Cumberlands will return to the UC Softball Complex for their next contest. The Pats take on #18 Tennessee Wesleyan for a single game on Tuesday, March 14. First pitch is scheduled for 3PM ET.

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