Gatto earns season strikeout record in Pride's road split at Calumet

WHITING, Ind. - Hitting the road for a two-day midweek road trip, the Clarke University softball team earned a doubleheader split against Calumet College of St. Joseph on Wednesday afternoon with a 4-3 win and an 8-2 loss in Whiting, Ind.

The Pride were able to make program history on Wednesday as sophomore pitcher Meredith Gatto got the game one start and became the Clarke softball record holder for strikeouts in a season, first tying the previous record set by Jill Slater in 2007 with a 135 total mark in the second inning, then broke the record in the fourth as she struck out the side in that frame to capture the record.

Game one saw the Crimson Wave take a 1-0 lead in the fourth before those three strikeouts by Gatto with a solo home run before adding two more runs in the fifth to lead 3-0 before Hannah Palzkill drove in Kynadee Harris in the top of the sixth to make it 3-1 CCSJ heading into the seventh.

Payge Pyszka would get a one out single to start what turned into a three-run comeback rally as Harlee Makue-Vasconcellos would single then Lauren Hefel would be hit by a pitch to load the bases for Harris when she would tie the game at 3-3 with a two-RBI double to center.

Kennedi LeDuff would re-enter the game at DP to take the next at bat as she would drive in Hefel with a sacrifice fly to give CU a 4-3 lead that would hold for Gatto as she forced three infield pop outs to close out the Pride victory.

Gatto finished off her ninth win of the season with a five-hit complete game while walking three batters and striking out five batters in total on the day to put her season total at 139 where she will extend that record over the remainder of the season, that includes five more regular season doubleheaders.

Clarke was able to outhit Calumet in the finale 10-7 but left nine batters stranded on base to end innings where the Crimson Save got a single run in the bottom of the second to lead 1-0 before a five-run fourth made it 6-0.

Hefel and Harris would be in the middle of the scoring action for CU in game two when Hefel doubled home Palzkill before Harris singled home Hefel to cut the CCSJ lead to 6-2 but they would extend the lead with sixth inning insurance runs.

Pyszka and Hannah Peña would split the work in the cirlce as Pyszka went 3.1 innings allowing five hits and two walks to the six-run, five earned, performance before Peña threw 2.2 innings in relief allowing two earned runs on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

Hefel and Teal Transburg finished with two hit games in game two to match the multi-hit games from Harris and Palzkill in the opener.

Clarke softball will swing back northwest from Indiana when they face off with Viterbo University on Thursday afternoon for a 2:00 p.m. CT scheduled first pitch in La Crosse, Wis. between the Pride and V-Hawks.