Pride battle but drop both ends of doubleheader at Central Methodist

FAYETTE, Mo. - Closing out three-straight days on the road with a matchup against NAIA ranked No. 11, the Clarke University softball team dropped both ends of their doubleheader against Central Methodist University by final scores of 7-1 and 6-3 on Friday afternoon.

Game one saw the Pride and Eagles trade early runs to be tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the third, as CMU was able to score two runs on a double and a sacrifice fly.

They would later add on with a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth innings with a solo home run, an RBI single, a double steal in a first and third situation, and another RBI single to push that lead its eventual final score of 7-1.

Clarke's top of the order were their most productive hitters as Lily King drove in the lone run with her RBI single in the third from the leadoff spot and Daija Bates led the team with two hits on the day.

Kila Carbine went a complete game six innings as one of the seven runs she allowed was unearned on her nine hits given up with four walks and a strikeout on the day.

The second game got off to a strong start for the Pride with an early run in the top of the first starting with back-to-back walks to King and Bates then a Lindsey Herrmann sacrifice bunt and Malarie Huseman RBI single put CU up 1-0.

Central Methodist would answer in the bottom half to tie it at 1-1 then add on three in the second inning to go ahead 4-1 on a solo home run, RBI double, and sacrifice fly.

Bates continued to see the ball well on the day as she launched her second home run of the season in the top of the fifth inning to cut the Eagles lead to 4-2.

CU would add another run on an Izriah Hodson RBI single, one of her three hits in the game, to make it a one-run game heading into the bottom of the sixth but two more runs for CMU pushed it 6-3 as they would close the game out in the seventh.

Huseman performed admirably for the Pride in the circle, keeping them in the game despite allowing 14 hits and only striking out one batter over the six innings of work.

Clarke softball will return home for two doubleheaders at Veterans Memorial Park next week when they host Culver-Stockton College on Wednesday and Peru State College on Saturday with Wednesday's first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CT.