Pride and Wildcats split rescheduled series-opening doubleheader
CANTON, Mo. - After weather had delayed the first road series in the Heart of America Athletic Conference for the Clarke University baseball team, the Pride were able to open up their four-game set against Culver-Stockton College on Monday afternoon with each team earning a win to start things out in Canton, Mo.
CU was able to pull out a game one victory after rallying from down 4-1 after an inning to earn a 6-5 victory before a similar recipe was started in the second game of the day before the Wildcats took a late lead to hold on to a 5-3 victory for the split.
That recipe included plenty of first inning runs in each game as the Pride got a run in the top half of the first in both games before CSC found a way to answer those runs by taking a lead in the bottom half that included four runs in game one and two runs in game two.
In game one, Jaxon Brooks got that scoring started with a ground ball single to right to score Eli Kelley, who lead the game off by reaching base on an error, but then three run scoring singles and a sacrifice fly put the home team up three runs.
Clarke chipped away with a run in each of the next two innings on Kelley and Ethan Hefel singles to left on full counts, putting CU down a run heading into the fourth inning before a three spot gave the Pride the lead back after Brady Lord mashed an RBI double to tie the game and eventually came around to score to close the inning on a Darin Eales sac fly with a run-scoring wild pitch sandwiched in between.
All while the Pride were mounting that comeback, starting pitcher David Jacobo recovered strongly from that four-run first inning for the next four innings to give way to Curtis Anderson for the two-inning save as the pair carved up the Wildcat lineup over the final six innings, allowing just four hits and allowing just one run.
Anderson's two-inning relief outing finished with just three walks and two strikeouts to convert his first save as a member of the CU pitching staff as he got Culver-Stockton to roll into a game-ending 5-4-3 double play to erase a one-out walk to put the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh.
The first inning run in game two was driven in by a Hefel single before a two-run double gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game, but the Pride rallied similar to game one when Daniel Mendez and Omari Barksdale drove in a pair with a sacrifice fly and RBI single respectively, making it a 3-2 score after four innings.
Instead of coming up shy of their own comeback similar to game one, this time CSC was able to produce a three-run fifth inning to take a 5-3 lead starting with a single and an error that scored two runs and their own sac fly, giving the home team a little bit of cushion.
After that fifth inning, both teams were able to produce scoreless one-inning relief appearances, first from Caleb Calcut of Clarke who pitched a scoreless sixth inning in 12 pitches to strike out a pair of Culver-Stockton hitters as he stuffed the strike zone throwing eight of those 12 pitches for strikes.
In the top of the seventh, Jared Marty of the Wildcats pitched around some trouble as the Pride were able to get the go-ahead run to the plate after a pair of two-out walks but Marty forced a fly ball to left field that was gobbled up for the final out of the day to produce a doubleheader split.
These two teams will get back after it at Nichols Field in Canton on Tuesday, Apr. 7 with game three's start of the doubleheader slated for a first pitch at 1:00 p.m. CT as Clarke baseball will look to earn their third-straight Heart series win to start conference play.