Pride fall in both ends of series opening doubleheader with William Penn

PEOSTA, Iowa - In the middle of a lot of schedule shuffling, the Clarke University baseball team began their final home weekend series with a pair of losses to William Penn University on Friday afternoon at A.J. Spiegel Park by 8-5 and 3-2 final scores.

In the opener, Pride second baseman Brady Lord was able to put the home team on the board in the bottom of the first with a solo home run to left field as the two teams traded single runs in the second inning with CU finishing two innings up 2-1 thanks to a Nico Reed bloop down the right field line that fell in for a hit and deflected into foul territory allowing Cole Swartz to score from second and Reed to race all the way to third for an RBI triple.

The Statesmen used a pair of RBI doubles from catcher Aiden North in the third and fifth innings and an Abraham Arroyo RBI single prior to North's double in the fifth to take the lead and extend it to 5-2 before Clarke were able to tie the game back up in the bottom of the fifth on RBIs from a Bryn Vantiger single, a Jaxon Brooks fielder's choice, and a Swartz single, but Swartz was thrown out at second trying to advance on the throw home towards the tying run, ending the inning instead of giving the Pride runners on first and third with two outs.

In the next half inning, William Penn was able to take the lead back on a two-out two-run home run to left center, making the game 7-5 as a seventh inning solo home run extended that lead to the final of 8-5 as CU's inability to finish defensive innings played a role in the final result with four of WPU's runs coming after two outs in the inning they were scored in.

Transitioning to game two, this time it was the Statesmen jumping out to an early lead when they produced two runs in the top of the first off of Clarke starter Alex Cashman and were threatening for more before Cashman produced an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

Double plays played a big role in Cashman's solid start to where he went 5.0 innings allowing three earned runs on six hits with three walks and two strikeouts as well as a hit batter, but in the first four innings, he was able to induce a double play in each, including catching a popped up bunt in the second and firing the ball over to first to go from first and second with no outs to two outs and a runner on first, then making a similar play on a fake bunt in the third on a soft liner back to the mound to be able to double off the runner at second, then getting out of a bases loaded and one out jam with a soft grounder up the middle for Darin Eales to turn a nice 6-3 twin killing, keeping the score at 2-1 at the time.

It was 2-1 thanks to a second inning Vantiger solo home run to left field part of a solid day for the Pride backstop as he finished the doubleheader with four hits in seven at bats, driving in two runs and scoring a run on the home run in game two.

Clarke was able to eventually tie the game when an Omari Barksdale leadoff walk followed by a Hunter Flores double put two runners in scoring position with no outs, but the Statesmen were able to execute a nice defensive play on an attempted safety squeeze to cut down Barksdale at the plate, but then Lord flied a ball to left for a sacrifice fly to score Flores and tie the score at 2-2.

Similarly to game one, CU tying the game in the fifth was followed up by William Penn retaking the lead in the top of the six as this time it was a Keoni Young single to left after a leadoff double from Arroyo set up WPU to take that lead.

A pair of of solid relief innings from Angel Alfaro and Curtis Anderson keep the score at 3-2 to give the Pride offense two cracks at either tying the score or taking the lead, but they couldn't break through to lose game two by that score as Alfaro was able to shine on the mound in a combined 1.2 innings of shutout ball allowing a hit and a walk with a strikeout for the junior from Hanford, Calif.

Clarke and William Penn will face off for two more on Saturday for Pride baseball's Senior Day as the game action is slated to start at 12:00 p.m. CT in Peosta, Iowa and Senior Day festivities scheduled to start prior to first pitch at noon.