Pride suffer another late loss to finish series at Doane

CRETE, Neb. - Finishing off their third four-game series of the season, the Clarke University baseball team was unable to salvage even a win if not a full series split as they dropped both games of their Friday doubleheader at Doane University by 14-2 and 7-6 final scores.

In game three of the series, the Pride were able to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second after a Jaiden Russin double led off the inning that was followed up by a Jaxon Brooks walk, a Tommy Rimoldi sacrifice bunt, a run scoring wild pitch, Ethan Hefel being hit by a pitch, and a safety squeeze bunt from Eric Hebert for two runs on just a single hit in the inning.

Unfortunately for CU, that Russin double was the only hit that Clarke would record over the entire seven innings where the Tigers were able to put up an eight-spot in the bottom of the third to take the lead and never look back, adding two more in the fifth and four in the sixth to pull away for the 12-run victory.

Day two's finale ended similar to game two of the series as the roles were slightly reverse of game three without some of the high-scoring inning extremes as this time Doane took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first to be answered by the Pride in the top of the second when Brady Lord singled up the middle to drive in a pair, making it 2-1 in favor of the visitors.

Over the next five innings, the teams traded single run scoring innings starting with a direct answer in the bottom of the second to tie the game at two before Lord drove in another run with a double in the sixth, but the game entered the eighth inning tied at 3-3 before Hefel stepped to the plate with two on and nobody out in the eight to launch a three-run home run to center field and give CU a 6-3 lead.

That lead didn't last even a half inning as DU answered with three of their own in the bottom half, scoring their first two before recording an out, but a timely double play gave Clarke the chance to get out of the inning still up a run before a two-out single tied the game heading into the ninth.

Despite a Darin Eales one-out double to put the go-ahead run in scoring position, the Pride came up empty in their half of the ninth and it would only take one hitter in the bottom half to finish game four similar to how they ended game two of the series with a walk off win, this time via a solo home run to lead off the inning and give the Tigers that 7-6 win to sweep the four-game set.

Hefel finished game four with a 3-for-4 game with that three run home run and scoring another run early in the game as Lord also went 3-for-4 while Russin added two more hits to finish the doubleheader with three hits and the trio of Eales, Omari Barksdale, and Bryn Vantiger all finished game four with a hit.

Between the six pitchers who took the mound on Friday for CU, sophomore lefty Zach Arnold produced the best line in the game four start, going five innings allowing two earned runs on six hits and a walk while only striking out one with Franklin Vasquez pitching two innings of relief in game three allowing two runs on just one hit and one walk and striking out three.

Clarke baseball will continue on in non-conference play but their next games will be against Heart opponents in a crossover Heart Jamboree against two Heart South teams that did not get put on the Pride's 2026 conference schedule as they'll travel to Olathe, Kan. and Parkville, Mo. for a doubleheader against MidAmerica Nazarene on Saturday, Mar. 7 before finishing the weekend with a doubleheader against Park University, both day's sets scheduled for a 12:00 p.m. CT first pitch of game one.