BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- Shelby Sievers and Brylee Misner hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning Monday as the Poplar Bluff softball team won at North County 6-1.
The Mules scored four runs in the opening frame, all with two outs, and Sievers picked up the win in the circle, striking out five.
"They were hitting the ball a little bit better," Mules coach Lisa Boyer said. "(North County's pitcher) threw a rise ball but we adjusted after a little bit."
Poplar Bluff (4-2) jumped ahead when Sievers hit her second home run in three games. Misner followed with her first of the season after hitting a record 10 last year as a freshman.
Sievers, a senior, and Misner ended last season tied for the team record for home runs in a career after Misner doubled the old single-season mark.
Misner was 2 for 3 Monday along with Lauren Alexander.
Alexander and Calli Gerber extended the first inning with singles before freshman Emma Johnson's two-run double.
Sievers (2-1) wiggled out of a first-inning jam after the Raiders put two on with one out. She struck out the next hitter on three pitches then got a groundout to third base.
Sievers walked two and allowed six hits in seven innings.
North County's lone run came in the third when a leadoff double scored after taking an extra base on an error, one of three by the Mules.
Poplar Bluff has committed multiple errors in four of the first six games.
"I thought the defense, especially our outfield, was one of our strengths this year and we're having some letdowns," Boyer said.
In the fifth, Jordyn Caldwell singled with one out before Misner's two-out single put runners at the corners. Alexander followed with an RBI single for a 5-1 lead.
Audrey Lack singled with one out in the sixth and scored on Adrienne Stucker's two-out, pinch-hit double to center.
"Stucker is hitting the ball really well right now," Boyer said of the senior off to a 6 for 7 start with five RBIs.
The Mules travel Thursday to Sikeston before starting a two-day tournament Friday at Rockwood Summit in Fenton, Missouri.