Pride and Pioneers split Heart Jamboree matchup

SHAWNEE, Kan. - Facing their second opponent from the Heart of America Athletic Conference South Division as a non-conference matchup, the Clarke University baseball team split a doubleheader against MidAmerica Nazarene University on Saturday afternoon in Shawnee, Kan. as part of the Heart Jamboree taking place in the Kansas City area.

Jumping ahead to the second game of the day, the Pride were able to come away with a 7-4 win while leading throughout the game after a three-run top of the first inning when Jaiden Russin roped a two-RBI double down the left field line before Ethan Hefel added another run by beating out a potential double play ball, making it 3-0 Clarke early.

After the Pioneers got a run back in the bottom of the first, CU started another rally in the third inning when Darin Eales led off with a double, Jaxon Brooks was hit by a pitch and Russin walked before Brady Lord grounded out to second, but MNU could only get one out on the RBI ground ball before Hefel walked to load the bases back up as Daniel Mendez would get plunked to drive in a run with the bases loaded and put the score at 5-1.

That would end up being enough run support for Kevin Toala, who would toss his second complete game of the season, going the full seven innings to allow four runs, three earned, allowing seven hits and four walks while striking out six batters for his second win of the season.

MidAmerica Nazarene made it a one-run game with two in the bottom of the third and another in the fourth off of Toala, but Hefel produced a run scoring sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning and Omari Barksdale singled home another insurance run in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to three runs.

Toala was able to pitch around a leadoff walk and a one-out single that put the tying run on base to pitch a scoreless seventh inning and close out Clarke's first win in 11 games to move their overall record to 4-12 to end the day.

In the day's first game, the Pioneers were in full control to an 11-1 victory as they outhit CU 11-2 behind a strong pitching performance from their pair of hurlers and back-to-back five-run innings in the fifth and sixth to break a 1-1 tie.

In the top of the fifth, the Pride got on the board to tie the game behind an Eli Kelley two-out RBI single to drive in Lord, who singled to lead off the inning, as Clarke also went on to load the bases with those two outs, but Kelley would get thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch to end the inning. 

Kelley finished with a three-hit day with Lord and Eales finishing with two hits on the day, Lord a hit in each game and Eales a two-hit game in the win, with Russin and Hefel finishing the win with a pair of runs driven.

MNU seemingly pulled some momentum from that defensive play to hold the tie for their first five-run inning to take a 6-1 lead behind a two-run double, an RBI single, and a two-run home run to cap the scoring and eventually knock out Clarke starter David Jacobo with all five of the runs that inning coming as unearned tallies, coming after two outs with an error being made earlier in the inning.

Jacobo finished with 4.2 innings pitched and just one earned run of the six he allowed in total with four strikeouts in his first appearance on the mound since Feb. 19 after not appearing in last weekend's series at Doane.

Pride baseball will stay in the area for another doubleheader day against a Heart foe in non-conference play when they face Park University on Sunday with a game one first pitch scheduled for 12:00 p.m. CT in Kansas City at Homefield Complex.