Wild home finale finishes with 18-15 Pride baseball victory over St. Ambrose

PEOSTA, Iowa - Closing out their 2026 home slate with a non-conference matchup with a future Heart foe, the Clarke University baseball team earned a high-scoring 18-15 win over St. Ambrose University on Tuesday night.

Before the home crowd could get comfortable, the Fighting Bees jumped out to an early 4-0 lead behind a five-hit inning then doubled that inning run total two innings later with an eight-spot in the third that was capped off by a three-run home run.

After that third inning, it was basically all Pride as they were able to chip away with one run in the fourth, two in the third, then huge five and seven-run innings in the sixth and seventh before adding on even more in the eighth to go from a one-run lead to a four-run lead at the time at 18-14.

Over that stretch, five CU pitchers were able to combined for six innings and just three hits and two runs with Angel Alfaro, Izeah Reyes, Caleb Calcut, and Derek Jenk all went an inning in relief for Franklin Vasquez to be tasked with the final two innings as his only damage allowed came with that 18-14 lead via an unearned run after a pair of walks.

In the seven-run seventh inning, Jaxon Brooks was able to kick things off with a first pitch solo home run to make it 14-9 then Michael Jeffers singled up the middle ahead of St. Ambrose getting the next two batters out, where the Pride would go on to get a pair of RBI hits from Cole Swartz and Brady Lord to make it 14-11.

A walk to Omari Barksdale and Jordan Breen getting hit by a pitch set the table with a bases loaded at bat for Ethan Hefel as the senior first baseman hit a high fly ball to left field that cleared the wall for a go-ahead grand slam that made it 15-14.

Ahead of that inning, Clarke's five-run sixth was powered behind RBIs from Nico Reed via a sacrifice fly, a single from Swartz, and double from Lord, then a two-run home run from Omari Barksdale that made it 12-8 before SAU got their two runs in the top of the seventh.

Eight of the starters in the order as well as Jeffers, who came in off the bench to catch midway through the game, reached base at least twice with Swartz going 3-for-6, Lord going 2-for-6, Barksdale going 3-for-4 with two walks to score five runs, Breen went 1-for-3 with two walks and was hit by a pitch, Hefel with 2-for-4 with two walks and five RBIs, Brooks went 1-for-3 with a walk and was hit by a pitch twice, and Jeffers went 1-for-3 with a walk then Hunter Flores and Reed each walked twice.

Clarke baseball will wrap up their 2026 regular season with a four-game series on the road against Peru State College in Peru, Neb. on Friday and Saturday Apr. 24-25 with each day's doubleheader slated to begin at 1:00 p.m. CT as the Pride can clinch a top-three Heart record with two wins in the series.