PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- The University of Pikeville softball team wrapped up a three-game Mid-South Conference series with Thomas More University on Saturday afternoon with the teams splitting the contests.
The Bears won the game that started on Friday by a 10-5 count before the Saints took the nightcap 11-1.
UPIKE (15-18, 4-14 in the Mid-South Conference) will be off until next weekend when they travel to Williamsburg to face the University of the Cumberlands in a series that starts on Friday.
Bears 10, Saints 5: Thomas More took a 1-0 lead on Friday afternoon when shortstop Maclai Branson hit a solo home run to left field.
After the Bears batted in the bottom of the first, the game was stopped due to lightning in the area and then postponed after rain began.
UPIKE took a lead it would never lose when it scored five times in the bottom of the second inning. It began when third baseman Lillie Kluesner walked and right fielder Amber Triplett singled. Kluesner scored to tie the game on a single by Karsen Prichard.
Second baseman Sophie Kluesner reached on a bunt single that scored Triplett and scored Prichard to make the lead 3-1.
Left Fielder Sam Case singled to move Kluesner to third and then stole second. Both runners scored when Alyssa Franklin's fly ball was dropped to make it 5-1.
The Bears made it 6-1 in the fourth when Franklin singled to score Sophie Kluesner, who had reached on a walk.
The Saints began to chip away in the fifth. Branson's triple plated two runs. In the sixth, Sydney Bledsoe singled in Delaney Kemper to make it 6-4.
But the Bears put it away with four in the bottom of the sixth. Designated hitter Haleigh Jones was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Franklin. Lillie Kluesner reached on an infield error that scored pinch runner Eilish Neff and Franklin to make it 9-4.
Kluesner reached third and scored when shortstop Zoe Ingram walked and bluffed going to second.
In the seventh, Kemper delivered the final run when she singled to score Branson.
Franklin had four runs batted in on a single and double to lead the Bears.
Chloe Bryant (3-3) went the distance to earn the win. Karys Black worked the first two innings and got the decision for the Saints.
Saints 11, Bears 1: Thomas More scored multiple runs in the second, fifth and seventh innings to cruise to the win.
The Bears had five hits, with Franklin delivering two of them to give her three hits, and drove in the only run her team scored in the fifth to give her five on the day.
Neff, Triplett and Prichard singled for the Bears.
Branson led the Saints with three hits, scoring twice and hitting a seventh-inning grand slam to put the game out of reach.
--UPIKE--
