Pride bats come up clutch when they need it most in sweep of Baker
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Getting back on their home field and to Heart of America Athletic Conference play after a quick trip into non-conference play earlier in the week, the Clarke University softball team earned a pair of final at-bat victories over Baker University on Saturday afternoon in a 7-6 game one win and a 9-8 extra innings win in game two.
Big innings in the middle of each game got the Pride back into games in which they trailed by at least five runs before they plated any offense with the game-winning strike in each game coming on extra base hits on a day where CU only had seven extra base hits in 16 innings of softball.
Starting off game one, Baker was able to jump out to an early 5-0 lead over the first two innings before a four-run bottom of the second put Clarke right back in the game, just down a run after Savannah Roberts singled home Kynadee Harris, Lauren Hefel singled home Cassandra Scheper, then Teal Transburg drove in the final two of the inning with a single of her own bringing home Kaylie Holtam and Roberts.
The Wildcats were able to get a run back to extend their lead to two runs in the top of the fourth but left fielder Olivia Sikora tied the game for CU in the bottom of the fifth inning with a two-run single to center field, plating Oakleigh Harman and Tenley Evans to make it 6-6 heading into the sixth inning.
After BU got the first two outs of the bottom of the sixth, Hefel stepped to the batter's box, already with a double and that prior RBI single to her name, as she launched a go-ahead solo home run to left-center field to give the Pride a 7-6 lead on her third long ball of the season.
Having entered to pitch the game in relief in the second inning, Ellie Flanagan would shut the door on the one-run victory in the top of the seventh, producing a fairly quiet inning pitching around a catcher's interference to put a runner on base with one out, but didn't get farther than second base.
Flanagan continues to be a weapon in the bullpen for the Pride as she produced 5.2 innings of relief in game one allowing just a single earned run on three hits and four walks with five strikeouts to pick up her first of two pitching wins on the day.
In the finale, the Wildcats scored a pair of runs in the top of the second inning then four more in the fifth before Clarke tied up the score with a six-run bottom of the fifth when Hefel started the scoring with a two-RBI double to right center before scoring on the next at bat after two errors on the play that preventing an out from behind recorded that could have helped end the inning earlier than and with just two runs being scored, but the Pride added on to tie it at 6-6 thanks to a Sikora two-RBI double and a Holtam bases loaded walk.
Following the tie game, a trend of Baker scoring a run and CU needing to answer started in the top of the sixth when a single and an error put the visitors back on top by a run that held up until the bottom of the seventh inning.
Kendall Kasput and Mya Durr started the inning with back-to-back singles before the Pride played small ball to get the runners over and eventually get one in when Holtam hit a sacrifice fly to center field, knotting the score at 7-7 and sending the game to extra innings.
In the eighth inning, the Wildcats took another one-run lead on a second and third RBI ground out, but Flanagan, who had entered in the seventh, was able to keep the scoring to just that one run allowing Clarke to tie the game again in the bottom half when Harris produced a clutch two-out RBI single to center, scoring Transburg to make the score 8-8, and force a ninth inning.
Flanagan pitched around a leadoff walk in the ninth to keep BU off the board, not knowing it at the time but wrapping up her day with another 2.2 innings out of the bullpen to allow just one earned run on two hits and two walks after replace Meredith Gatto, who bounced back from a rough game one start to produce 1.2 relief innings to allow an unearned run on three hits and a strikeout.
That set up the Pride to just need a run to end the game as they started the bottom of the ninth with an Alicia Amaya walk where Reece Fleming would come in to pinch run at first base, adding some speed for a potential ball to the wall to score her from first.
A ground out advanced Fleming to second but the next batter popped up to make it two outs for Sydney Wilson, who entered the game as a sub in the fourth inning to play third base, as Wilson took a 0-1 pitch and roped it to the gap in right-center field, scoring Fleming from second easily and winning the game 9-8 for the home team to secure the sweep.
Pride softball will be right back at Veterans Memorial Park on Sunday, Mar. 29 when they host Benedictine College for another doubleheader slated to start at 1:00 p.m. CT to wrap up CU's action for the month of March.