Williamsburg, KY-  The seventh-ranked Patriots tallied three homeruns to take the series opener against Pikeville 13-6, Thursday afternoon at Doyle Buhl Stadium. Cumberlands moved to 38-6 on the season and 20-5 in conference play. Also with today's win, Head Coach Brad Shelton garnered his 800th win as a Patriot.

Hunter Rigsby got the start and the win after pitching 6.0 innings, allowing four runs on five hits with six strikeouts. Chipper Korbacher came into close and picked up his third save as he pitched 3.0 innings. He only allowed two hits and two runs with five strikeouts. Charlie Muniz led the way offensively as he went 3-5 with a homerun and a double for three RBIs. Sujel Arias went 2-3 with a double and an RBI. Raphy Almanzar and Caden Petrey added homeruns.

After two scoreless innings, Almanzar got the Pats on the board first in the third with a solo homerun to left field to take the 1-0 lead.

UC added three more runs in the fourth, to extend the lead to 4-0. With two outs, Josh Simon singled towards first. Shavers followed with a single to left field. Then Petrey
followed with a three-run homerun for the 4-0 lead.

Pikeville got one run across in the fifth and Cumberlands answered with three runs in their next at-bat. Muniz led off with a double to right center, then Arias followed with an RBI double for the 5-1 lead. Arias would score on an RBI single from Max Harper for the 6-1 lead. St Claire then notched a single followed by a Ben Snapp walk to load the bases. Harper scored on an RBI groundout from Simon to take the 7-1 lead.

The Bears scored two runs in the sixth to cut the lead to 7-4. In the seventh, UC scored a run to make it 8-4. Harper led off the inning with a single and would advance to second on a balk. He would go to third on a wild pitch and score on an RBI single from Snapp to make it 8-4.

Chipper Korbacher sat the Bears down in a row in the top of the eighth before the Pats added onto their lead in the bottom half. After a Petrey walk and an error that allowed Almanzar to reach, Muniz came up and launched one over the left field fence to make it 11-4 UC. Two walks and a St. Claire single loaded the bases with Snapp coming to the plate.
He would get hit by a pitch, scoring Arias. A couple batters later, Harper would come in to score off a wild pitch to give Cumberlands the 13-4 lead into the ninth.

Pikeville would score two runs in the top half, but it was not enough as the Patriots went on to take game one 13-6.

They will return tomorrow for two games, looking for a series win and sweep. Senior Day recognition will begin at 11:30 AM, with first pitch scheduled for noon.

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