Pride baseball's trio up the middle earn 2026 Heart postseason honors

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Nearing the end of the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament, the Clarke University baseball team learned of three members selected as postseason award winners by the conference on Sunday morning.

Two of those three players received All-Heart Honorable Mention recognitions with junior second baseman Brady Lord and junior center fielder Omari Barksdale both receiving the honor in their first seasons at CU while senior shortstop Darin Eales being named the Gold Glove shortstop for his defensive work in 2026.

All stats mentioned include Heart Tournament games for those who played, but All-Hearts selections were made based off of regular season numbers.

Barksdale, an Atlanta, Ga. native, made a lot of his biggest impacts with his speed and power tools as one of just two members of the Pride lineup to finish the season with a slugging percentage over .500 at .557 behind a team leading eight home runs and three triples on the season along with adding four doubles while also getting on base at a .423 clip with a team-high tying 26 walks. Hitting in the leadoff spot in the order for a good amount of the year, Barksdale also led Clarke in runs scored at 37 and stolen bases at 19 despite having to miss the Heart Tournament due to injury, which was a big blow to the lineup as he did his best work in the final month of the season, going 22-for-52 (.423) with all four of his doubles, all three of his triples, five of his eight home runs, 16 runs scored, and 17 RBIs from the start of their series against Grand View on Mar. 28 until he suffered his injury on the final day of the regular season.

Lord, a Queen Creek, Ariz. native, was another major run producers in the Pride lineup, driving in a team-high tying 34 RBIs in the regular season and finishing the year with 36 in total after postseason play while also scoring 36 runs behind a slashline that ended at .299/.382/.471 with his gap to gap power producing 11 doubles, two triples, and four home runs. Finishing the season with the most plate appearances on the team, Lord had the most at bats as well with 157 to finish second on the team with 47 hits and walking 21 times as there were only eight games in where he was in the lineup that he didn't reach base at least once either via a hit or a walk out of the 47 games he played as a hitter and added one games solely as a starting pitcher with no plate appearances. Similar to Barksdale, Lord did some of his best work towards the tail end of the season, especially in conference play, producing a slashline of .364/.440/.623 in conference games including a stretch from Apr. 10-18 where he had four multi-hit games, three home runs, a triple, 12 runs scored, and seven RBIs against William Penn, Culver-Stockton, and Mount Mercy.

Eales, a Stockton, Calif., native, produced a fantastic defensive season at shortstop, a lot of times combining with Lord for nifty double play turns, to finish with a fielding percentage of .976 on the season by committing only four errors in 164 total defensive chances on the year. Speaking of those double plays, Eales helped turn 20 twin killings for the Pride's season total of 42 to land second in the conference as his final defensive play breakdown finished at 55 putouts and 105 assists. Not considered for the Gold Glove award, Eales also produced at the plate in his final season at CU, slashing .318/.407/.523 as the only "3,4,5" player in the Pride lineup among players that played over half of the games as he finished at 48 hits, 36 runs scored, 31 RBIs, nine doubles, two triples, and six home runs while walking more times than he struck out at a 23-to-20 rate, then never getting caught stealing in his 19 attempts to tie Barksdale for the team lead in swipes.

Full Heart Release: https://heartofamericaconference.com/sports/bsb/2025-26/releases/20260503edmcay

Pride baseball finished the 2026 season with a 26-23 overall record, after clinching their first winning record in the Heart since 2023 with a third place finish at 17-7 with Barksdale and Lord expected to highlight a returning group that made significant contributions to the team in Clarke's best season since 2023.