Three Rivers' Lindsey Landles gets a hit against Forest Park on Monday afternoon at Rains Field. (Alex Abate/DAR) [Click to enlarge]

By ALEX ABATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

The Lady Raiders bats were on fire Monday afternoon at Rains Field.

Three Rivers had a total of 21 hits as it defeated Forest Park twice, 7-0 and 8-3.

"The first game, we hit the ball better," Lady Raiders (15-10) coach Jack Childress said. "The second game, it seemed like we didn't."

Leslie Taylor and Kayla Yeater were solid in the first game as they each had two RBIs. Tabitha Martin led the team with two RBIs in the second game.

Chelsea Claypole pitched a shutout in the first game as she allowed just three hits and had four strikeouts while Kaci Smith allowed three runs over seven innings and had six strikeouts in the later game.

"As the game wore on, I thought (Claypole) pitched better," Childress said. "I thought she had some excellent changeups in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. She was spotting the ball a lot better."

The Lady Raiders started the scoring early in the first game. They scored one run in the first and two in the second before expanding their lead to 6-0 in the fourth inning.

After Maegan Booker start the inning getting hit, Wendy Eftink singled to center which moved courtesy runner Caitlin Smith to third. Martin then flied to center field and Smith scored to make it 4-0. Jaclyn Blake followed with a double to left field to score Eftink and make it 5-0. The Lady Raiders got their final run of the inning as Blake scored on a wild pitch with Cortney Ostendorf batting to make it 6-0.

Taylor hit a home run to center field in the bottom of the fifth to set the final score at 7-0.

In the second game, Forest Park took an early 1-0 in the third inning. With one out, Jamie Renfro singled past Lindsey Landles at second base before Laura Flowers singled one out later to set the table for Lynnie Austin. Austin took advantage and singled to right field to score Renfro.

However, the lead was short-lived as the Lady Raiders plated two runs in the bottom half of the third to take a 2-1 lead. Kaci Menz singled and Landles followed with a triple to left field to tie the game at 1. With two outs, Booker singled to score Landles and give the Lady Raiders one-run lead.

The Lady Raiders shouldn't have needed Forest Park to score before waking up and snatching back the lead, Childress said.

"You have to earn everything and you have to go out there and execute," Childress said. "Getting that second run was big. That kind of put us over the hump and then we got three and four (runs)."

Three Rivers added to its lead with one run in the fourth inning and two in the fifth. They put even more distance in between themselves and Forest Park by plating two in the sixth inning.

With one out, Taylor singled to left field and Booker reached first on an error to load the bases. Eftink reached on another error and Ostendorf scored to make it 7-1. Brittany Holoien then singled to score Taylor and make it 8-1.

Even though the game was in hand, Three Rivers had two errors and a wild pitch in the top of the seventh inning which led to two runs by Forest Park.

"The second game was ugly," Childress said. "We resorted back to making mistakes and not handling adversity very well."