Portsmouth, OH – The #3 Pats went back on the road and back into Mid-South Conference plat taking on the Shawnee State Bears. The teams played a pair of games to open the series and UC won both by scores of 7-3 and 6-2. Cumberlands pushed their win streak to 12 games and are now 7-0 in MSC play.
 
Of the 13 runs that UC scored, five of them came off the bat of Bailey Turnbow. She recorded four total hits, with two of them for extra base hits. Carly Oliver also had four hits, scored twice and tallied a RBI. Maddie Sickau blasted two doubles and drove in two runs.
 
In the circle, both Kaiti White and Talli Burgess earned the wins on the day improving to 8-1 and 11-0 respectively. White got the start in game one and went 6.0 innings, limiting the Bears to just six hits and three runs. Lindsey Shope came into the game in the seventh and give up just one hit in four batters faced. Morgan Radford started game two and went two innings, giving up two hits and two runs. Burgess pitched the remaining five innings, striking out seven and limiting the Bears to only three hits.
 
GAME ONE: PATS DOWN THE BEARS, 7-3
Three groundouts to Oliver at second in the first sent the Bears down in order, then UC got going in the top of the second.
 
Turnbow began the inning with a single to center field and Mackenzie Pawlak followed it up with a single of her own to put a pair of runners on. Meryn Livingston followed it up with a SAC bunt to advance both runners into scoring position. A walk to Kaysee Dale loaded the bases and Hailey Wood knocked the ball into the outfield, scoring Turnbow and keeping the bases full of Pats. Two batters later, a walk to Makenzie Keatts scored another run giving Cumberlands the 2-0 lead.
 
The Bears led off the bottom of the second with a single, but it was immediately wiped away. The ball was hit at Oliver who tagged the runner and fired over to first for the double play. The third frame was the same for Shawnee State with a leadoff single and once again a ball to Oliver kickstarted a double play. This time Oliver flipped it to Sickau at second who fired to first for the 4-6-3 double play.
 
With two outs in the fourth, the Pats got rolling again. Oliver singled to left field and then swiped second. Keatts got aboard from a walk and Bryant followed it with a walk of her own to load the bases. Next, a single to the right center gap from Sickau scored Oliver and Keatts and put Bryant on third. The bats kept going, Turnbow roped the ball to right center, scoring both Sickau and Bryant. Not stopping there, Pawlak laced a ball down the right field line to score Turnbow making the score 7-0.
 
In the bottom of the seventh, the Bears started the inning with a home run for their first run of the contest. Back-to-back singles from Shawnee State, brought Shope into the game. Shope got a popout and a groundout for two quick outs. The Bears did get the bases loaded and earned a single, but Wood picked the ball up in centerfield and fired to second where Sickau applied the tag for the final out of the game. Two more runs did score to make it a 7-3 final.
 
GAME TWO: CUMBERLANDS DEFEATS SHAWNEE STATE, 6-2
The Bears took the first lead of the game, scoring in their half of the first inning off a double and an error to go up 1-0. 
 
Cumberlands then tied the game back up in the third. Dale was the spark plug singling to start the frame, with a hit to left field. Oliver brought her in off a double to left field, tying the contest at 1-1. Then the Bears answered with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the third to retake the lead. Burgess entered the frame with a runner on first and no outs. She got a pair of fly outs and a strikeout to eliminate any more runs on the board.
 
Again, UC answered back, tying the game back up. Sickau launched a double into left field for her 40^th double of her career, ranking her first all time. Turnbow followed it up with a single to the outfield, scoring Sickau to make it 2-2.
 
Burgess settled into the game in the fourth, striking out the side, including the last two going down looking. 
 
With the game still tied in the sixth, Bryant walked to being the inning. Sickau pushed her to second off a SAC bunt and then moved to third on a passed ball. Turnbow belted her fourth home run of the season, for two-runs to give UC their first lead of the game at 4-2.
 
UC kept rolling in the seventh, started by Oliver with a single and then stole second to be in scoring position. Keatts followed it up with a single to center to score Oliver. For the third straight hit of the inning, Bryant blasted a double to left field bringing around both runners to push the lead to 6-2.
 
The Bears got some momentum in the seventh, starting the inning off with a double. Burgess then struckout the next batter and got a popout. Burgess walked the next batter to put two runners on with two outs. But unfazed, Burgess struckout the final batter of the game to solidify the win at 6-2. The win pushes Cumberlands to now 26-2 on the season.
 
The Patriots and the Bears are looking to finish the series on Sunday, March 26 with a time to be determined based on the weather. 
 
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