Pitching and timely hitting carry Pride to pair of 3-0 wins over Missouri Valley

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Getting their first taste of home action in the 2025 season, the Clarke University softball team earned a doubleheader sweep over Missouri Valley College for their first wins in Heart of America Athletic Conference play with matching 3-0 wins on Friday afternoon.

CU pitchers Meredith Gatto and Payge Pyszka combined to allow just six hits and five walks over 14 innings in the circle with Gatto producing both her fifth win and first save of the season, throwing a one-hit shutout in game one while striking out 12 Vikings for Pyszka to go 6.2 shutout innings in game two allowing five hits and four walks to give way to Gatto for the final out of the day.

Lauren Hefel was one of the offensive stars for the Pride on the day, driving in the first and last two runs of the day, first with an RBI single to center in game one scoring Kaylie Holtam and making it 1-0 Clarke early.

The freshman from Asbury, Iowa would come up in the top of the sixth of game two with two runners on where she would rope a two-RBI double to right center scoring Olivia Sikora and Harlee Makue-Vasconcellos to extend a CU 1-0 lead to 3-0, three outs away from the sweep.

Both games saw the Pride produce runs in the fifth and sixth innings as Holtam singled to left in the bottom of the fifth in game one to score Kendall Kasput then CU would steal a run in the sixth with runners on first and third, Sikora took off to steal second and as the throw went through, Kynadee Harris scampered home to make it 3-0.

Game two's fifth inning run broke the scoreless tie as junior Hannah Palzkill hit a solo home run to left center field for her second long ball of the season also extending her active hitting streak to seven-in-a-row as her recent stretch at the plate moved her into the team lead for batting average and slugging percentage at .359 and .564 respectively.

Pride softball will hope to avoid some predicted rain on Saturday as they're scheduled to host No. 6 Central Methodist University at Veterans Memorial Park on Mar. 29 for a game one first pitch scheduled for 12:00 p.m. CT. Any weather related changes will be posted on Pride Athletic social media channels as early as possible.