Pride baseball leads Heart with eight All-Conference selections

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Coming off of their second-straight North Division title in Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University baseball team learned that eight players earned All-Conference honors on the first day of the Heart Tournament.

Those eight players, which leads the conference in total All-Conference selections, includes cather Thomas Brannon (First Team), second baseman Victor Lara (First Team), shortstop Bubba Thompson (Second Team), outfielder Brendan O'Connor (First Team), and pitchers Johnny Blake (First Team), Greg Bennett (First Team), Brendan Boily (Second Team), and Isaac Rohde (Honorable Mention).

The five first team seelctions also led the conferecne in most members of the first team as Lara is the lone member of the Pride to receive back-to-back first team selections after receiving the honor in 2022 as well.

The headliners of the all-conference teams for CU are Blake and Brannon, who both received A designations towards All-America nominations with Brannon finishing the regular season with a team-high .442 batting average and Blake's ERA of 1.69 leading the NAIA at the time of the All-Conference announcement.

Blake finished with the second-most innings pitched for the Pride at 64.0 while surrendering 18 runs, 12 earned on 44 hits and 20 walks while striking out 74 batters for a 10.41 K/9 average. The Dubuque Senior High School product finished with a 6-2 record, going undefeated in all of his Heart starts, while also picking up a save and breaking the Clarke program record for most complete game shutouts in a career as he finished the regular season hurling back-to-back shutouts.

Brannon's slash line finished the regular season at .442/.545/.667 over 90 at bats as his on-base percentage also led the team. He walked twice as many times as he struck out, showing a good eye at the plate to 24 walks and elite bat-to-ball skills with only 12 strikeouts while also tying for second on the team in RBIs with 31, finishing with five doubles, a triple, and five home runs.

Bennett filled a vital role for Clarke's pitching staff in 2023 as the team's fourth starter by rotation but not by the numbers as his ERA finished the season at 2.19 while leading the team in wins at eight over 61.2 innings pitched. The Peosta, Iowa native had as many relief appearances as starts to lead the team with 16 appearance on the mound as he allowed 15 earned runs on 50 hits and struck out 52 batters on the season.

Lara's second-straight first team selection was powered by his run production, leading the team with 159 at bats, 56 hits, 38 RBIs, and 44 runs scored batting out of the lead off spot for a majority of the season. The Littleton, Colo. native provided plenty of pop as well with 11 doubles, a triple, and four home runs to finish with a slugging percentage of .509 while joining Brannon as the only players on the Pride to walk more than they struck out among qualified players.

O'Connor slotted right behind Lara in the two-hole in the lineup to be an extra-base machine as the CU right fielder slashed .344/.474/.623 with 12 doubles, two triples, and six home runs in 122 at bats. The Homer Glen, Ill. native had high run production value as well scoring 34 runs and driving another 28 to be top-five on the team in both categories as well.

Thompson and Lara were the only two players to start every game for the Pride as the shortstop boosted his offensive production from a solid 2022 to slash .305/.422/.603 as the team's leader in home runs at nine and doubles with 15. The Hortonville, Wis. native finished just behind his double-play partner Lara in the run production categories, placing second for CU with 31 RBIs and 37 runs scored.

Boily led Clarke in inning pitched among the non-starts for the Pride, ending the regular season with 15 innings pitched, all in relief to finish with the team's second-lowest ERA at 1.80. The Boise, Idaho native allowed three earned runs and struck out 22 batters to just eight walks for a 13.20 K/9 average and finished with a 1-1 record on the mound.

Rohde used a dominant start to his 2023 season and reliability to go deep into games to receive his honorable mention nod after moving from the bullpen in 2022 to the starting rotation in 2023. The Rice Lake, Wis. lefty went 7-2 on the year with a team-high 71.2 innings pitched, eight complete games, and 101 strikeouts to finish the season at a 4.52 ERA. Rohde also received the Gold Glove from the Heart at the pitcher's position, finishing the season with a perfect fielding percentage with 15 assists and no errors on the year.

Clarke baseball is scheduled to take the field for their first game in the Heart Tournament tonight at 8:30 p.m. CT in Ozark, Mo. as they'll take on William Penn University in the quarterfinals of the double elimination tournament.