Pride fall in both ends of midweek trip to Central Methodist

FAYETTE, Mo. - Taking a Tuesday trip to Fayette, Mo. to take on a Heart of America Athletic Conference foe in a non-conference matchup, the Clarke University baseball team fell in each end of their doubleheader against Central Methodist University by 18-4 and 5-4 final scores.

In the high-score game one loss, the Pride and Eagles combined for 27 hits, but the home team was able to capitalize on their offensive opportunities at a significantly higher rate, hitting three home runs, two doubles, and three doubles compared to just three of the CU hits coming as extra base hits in the form of three doubles.

Defensively, CMU was also able to turn three double plays to eliminate some of those Pride scoring chances with the two-man pitching tandem of Derick Garcia and Vince Ray pitching around the traffic despite only striking out two batters in total.

Clarke took an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first when Bryn Vantiger, Ethan Hefel, and Omari Barksdale all drove in runs with a single, double, and single respectively, but the Eagles answered with one in the bottom of the first, three in the second, four in the third, five in the fourth, and four in the fifth to go from down 3-0 to up 17-4 after five innings.

Hefel finished with a three-hit game while driving in two runs and the only other member of the lineup to produce a multi-hit game in game one with three other players reaching base at least two times as Brady Lord recorded a hit and two walks, Darin Eales walked twice, and Barksdale added a walk to his RBI single in the first.

The Pride would once again take a lead in the top of the first with a two-RBI double from Jaxon Brooks, but again weren't able to add on allowing CMU to tie the game at 2-2 first with a run in the bottom of the first then tying the game in the fifth on RBI singles producing each run.

Clarke took another two-run lead with a pair of run scoring hits in the top of the seventh with Kelley and Eales both drove in runs on a single and double respectively, but the Eagles used their final at bats to their advantage, scoring three in the bottom of the seventh, first coming within a run on a Gavin Whitehurst single to center then the game winning hit coming off the bat of Dariel Rios as he singled to right to drive in a pair and end the game.

That bottom of the seventh inning spoiled what was a quality start from Alex Cashman to that point as the right-hander threw into the seventh but couldn't record an out in that final inning for his final line to finish at four earned runs on seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Brooks finished with a 2-for-3 line at the plate with the two runs driven in and a walk while Kelley, Eales, and game two catcher Daniel Mendez each recording two hits for that four-player group to finish with eight of the team's nine hits in the game.

Pride baseball will be back at A.J. Spiegel Park this weekend to get back to official Heart play when they host Grand View University for a four-game series covered between a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday, Mar. 28-29 as both days slates are set to start at 1:00 p.m. CT.