Pride and Eagles split 2026 opening doubleheader
DES MOINES, Iowa - Starting their 2026 season a week later than anticipated, the Clarke University baseball team faced Judson University in Des Moines, Iowa for a Friday afternoon doubleheader where each team came away with a victory.
In the first game of the day, the Eagles came away with a walkoff victory on a bases loaded single in the bottom of the seventh before the day's finale saw CU score 13 runs in the third inning on their way to a 20-5 victory to get their first win of 2026 in the books.
The two teams traded blows early in game one where JU took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning before senior catcher Bryn Vantiger hit a solo home run to left field in the top of the second then would tie the game again with an RBI double to center and later hitting a two-RBI single for a four RBI game while going 3-for-4.
Darin Eales and Eli Kelley both also produced multi-hit games in the opener with Kelley going 4-for-4 out of the two-hole in the lineup getting the start in right field while Eales hit cleanup and started at short stop to go 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI.
After Vantiger's single made it 6-2, Judson would rally back with a run each in the fourth and fifth before tying the score at 6-6 with two runs in the sixth inning off of Pride starter Kevin Toala, who debuted in navy and gold to a six-inning performance where he allowed 10 hits, six runs, five earned, and struck out seven batters.
In Clarke's victory in the day's finale, the Eagles took an early lead once again when they hit a two-run home run off of another debuting pitcher for CU in Curtis Anderson as the Pratt Community College transfer would survive that early deficit to a four-inning start, striking out four, and giving up just three hits outside of the home run to earn his first win on the mound.
The offense would get jump started in that third inning starting with a Brady Lord two-run single to tie the game before Vantiger gave the Pride the lead with the first of his two different run scoring hits in the inning when he doubled home Lord to put Clarke up 3-2.
Omari Barksdale, another debuting member of the Pride lineup, hit the first of his two home runs in the game in the third inning with Jaxon Brooks also launching his first long ball of the season to cap off the 13-run inning with a two-run shot.
Hunter Flores got back-to-back starts at third base to start the year as he would go 2-for-4 in game two with a home run of his own while game two catcher Daniel Mendez went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Kelley added four more hits in game two to finish the day with eight hits in 10 at bats.
Two more CU newbies would finish off the game on the mound with Derek Jenk pitching a scoreless fifth inning before Alex Cashman pitched two innings in relief, striking out five of the six outs he recorded to close things out.
Clarke and Judson will be back at it on Saturday with an 11:00 a.m. CT scheduled start in Des Moines to wrap up their opening weekend following the temperature warm-up in Iowa to allow these games to take place.