Six games in a row the Raiders have given up a big inning and lost them all. In their most recent game, they gave up three big innings. Three Rivers College was plagued by miscues once again and was swept by Mineral Area 7-2 and 14-3 on Thursday at Roger Pattillo Field. "Defensively, certainly that's one big hurdle that we've got to overcome in staying out of the big inning," Three Rivers coach Stacey Burkey said. "A lot of those have just been attributed to, I don't know what exactly, but some type of miscue whether it be mental or physical." The Raiders have allowed at least four runs in their last seven games, including all six Region XVI contests. In the opener against the Cardinals (8-6, 2-0 Region XVI), Three Rivers (3-8, 0-6 Region XVI) had runners on base in every inning, and out-hit Mineral Area 8-7. "We hit some balls well the second half of the game and were only able to get two runs out of it," Burkey said. "It was just one of them deals where we couldn't find a way to get it done."

Three Rivers stranded the bases loaded in the fifth, and got two runs after sending eight batters to the plate. The Cardinals, meanwhile, took the lead in the first inning after their leadoff hitter, reached on a high chopper off the plate. Parker Dent walked the next two batters, then the Raiders committed an error, giving Mineral Areal a 2-0 lead. "It kind of set the tone for that game," Burkey said. Mineral Area sent eight batters to the plate in the third inning, just like the Raiders did in the fifth, except the Cardinals got four runs out of the frame to go ahead 6-0. Dent (0-1), in the loss, pitched 2 1/3 innings with two walks and five hits against with one strikeout. Gage Atchley, throwing 62 pitches in his second appearance of the season, allowed one run off two hits and four walks with four strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings of middle relief, and Toby Miller struck out the side in the seventh. Dylan Kater and Matt Robbins both singled and scored to open the fifth inning for Three Rivers. Kater, and Ryan Hunter each had two hits. In the nightcap, which ended in the seventh, Three Rivers stranded 10 runners and gave up 10 unearned. Mineral Area scored five runs in the second, four in the sixth, and five more in the seventh. "There's been several instances where teams have scored more runs without really getting a lot of hits," Burkey said. "Defensively, we've given up a lot of things that we can't afford to do."