Early leads power Pride softball to road wins over Hannibal-LaGrange
HANNIBAL, Mo. - Getting their final non-conference games of the 2026 season in near the end of March, the Clarke University softball team earned a pair of victories by comfortable margins on Wednesady afternoon against Hannibal-LaGrange University.
Opening the doubleheader, the Pride were able to jump out to a 4-0 lead over the first two innings of the game with leadoff hitter Kaylie Holtam right in the middle of most of the scoring as she scored in the first on Teal Transburg's RBI single then drove in Taryn Hoffman on a triple in the second after Hoffman doubled home Hannah Palzkill one batter earlier then Holtam scored her second run in as many innings on a Harlee Makue-Vasconellos single to make it 4-0.
Those early tallies would be plenty of runs for the pitching combination of starter Meredith Gatto and reliever Ellie Flanagan who pitched four and three innings respectively to each give up an earned run with Gatto striking out six and Flanagan striking out three as they combined to allow five hits and walk four.
Holtam continued to be a catalyst at the top doubling home a run in the top of the fourth then later scoring on a passed ball to finish 3-for-3 with three runs scored, two RBIs, and come up a home run shy of the cycle as Transburg, Palzkill, and Lauren Hefel all finishing with multi-hit games as well and Oakleigh Harman driving in CU's final run of the game with a fifth inning single to score Transburg and make it 7-1 at the time, before finishing the game at a 7-2 win.
In the finale, this time a huge top of the first inning saw the Pride score nine times on eight hits with two errors also being committed as the run-scoring hits by way of, in order, a Harman RBI single, a Kynadee Harris RBI single, an Olivia Sikora RBI single, a Palzkill RBI ground ball error, a Hoffman RBI single, a Holtam RBI single, and a Hefel bases clearing double with the bases loaded to score runs seven, eight, and nine.
Hefel shined at the plate in total on the day, finishing the second game with three hits, a run scored, and four RBIs while Harris added her own three-hit game and every starter in the Clarke lineup finished with a hit to help add up to their 13 hits in the game.
Emma Slayback started in the circle in the finale to pitch the first four innings of the run-rule five-inning victory to allow an earned run on six hits while not walking or striking out a batter as Flanagan once again entered in relief to pitch a perfect three-up, three-down fifth inning to secure the 12-1 win.
Clarke softball will return to Heart of America Athletic Conference play on Saturday, Mar. 28 when they also return to their home field of Veterans Memorial Park for a 1:00 p.m. CT scheduled first pitch of their doubleheader against Baker University.