Pride sweep Sabercats in road rematch

WATERTOWN, Wis. - Facing off against a team they just recently welcomed to their home park, the Clarke University softball team earned two more wins in a road doubleheader against Maranatha Baptist on Monday afternoon into the evening by 22-6 and 16-0 final scores.

The Pride trailed early in game one with Maranatha Baptist scoring four runs through three innings on a two-run home run in the first then a wild pitch and single in the third made it 4-1 before an eight-run fourth inning from CU gave them the lead with Cassandra Scheper, Maya Griegel, Ariana Black, Teal Transburg, and Hailey Hornick all producing run-scoring hits to take Clarke from down 4-1 to up 9-4.

Karlee Transburg and Jazz Daughtrey would join the offensive fun in a four-run top of the sixth for Clarke before Griegel produced a two-RBI single up the middle to push the CU lead to nine runs before adding nine more in the top of the seventh where Transburg had two more two-RBI hits along with a Reece Fleming RBI on a bases loaded walk, and Black producing a two-RBI single for Transburg to finish with a six-RBI game.

All of those 22 runs were in support of pitcher Madison Gonzalez as she finished a complete game allowing all six runs as earned runs on nine hits and six walks but also struck out 10 MBU batters for her first career win in the circle.

Karlee Transburg was a star of the game two 16-0 win as she tossed five no-hit innings while striking out six in the run rule victory where she only allowed three base runners with a walk, hit batter, and an error as the hit batter was erased by a ground ball double play in the bottom of the fifth. 

Offensively, Griegel was another big producers in her second-straight three-RBI game as she went 3-for-5 with three runs batted in with Black and Karlee Transburg also driving in three runs in the finale as well while she and Gonzalez had three hits then Fleming, Black, and Teal Transburg had two-hit games in the finale.

The Pride scored runs in every inning led by a 10-run top of the first to jump out to a huge lead before adding two in the seocnd and fourth, and one run each in the third and fifth.

Completing their sixth-straight day of doubleheaders, half in non-conference and half in conference play, Clarke softball will have a day off before getting back on the road on Wednesday when they head to Whiting, Ind. for another non-conference matchup against Calumet College of St. Joseph with a game one first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CT.