Late heroics salvage a Senior Day split for Pride against William Woods
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Entering the final week of their 2026 regular season by celebrating their Senior Day, the Clarke University softball team was able to earn a split of a doubleheader against William Woods University on Sunday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Park.
In between a 6-3 loss and 4-3 win, the Pride honored their large 14-player senior class with an on-field ceremony to recognize the group that included Payton Morris, Cassandra Scheper, Reece Fleming, Mya Durr, Aris Tyler, Maya Griegel, Oakleigh Harman, Olivia Sikora, Hannah Palzkill, Kaylie Holtam, Taryn Hoffman, Payge Pyszka, Harlee Makue-Vasconcellos, Kynadee Harris, and Kennedi LeDuff as they near the end of their tenure on the CU softball team.
Jumping all the way to the final inning of the day, it was a 3-1 lead for the visiting Owls when Sydney Wilson led the bottom of the seventh off with a single to right field to put the tying run at the plate, but each of the next two batters grounded into fielder's choice plays to keep a runner on first with two outs for Lauren Hefel to continue the inning with a single to left center.
Up to the plate came Teal Transburg, who already had two hits in the game and three hits on the day as a whole as she would get down to her final strike immediately behind in the count 0-2, but staying alive with a pair of foul balls and taking a pitch outside of the zone to run the count to 1-2.
On the sixth pitch of the at bat, Transburg launched a ball deep to left center that cleared the fence for a walkoff three-run home run to win the game for the Pride with her third dinger of the season.
That clutch seventh inning came on the heels of a sixth inning in which Clarke threatened to cut into a 3-0 WWU lead after back-to-back singles to start the inning and a passed ball made it second and third with no outs where Harman hit a ball to left center that looked destined for the gap, but Owls' center fielder Lexi Lewis made the first of a pair of nice running catches in the inning to turn a possible RBI hit for Harman into a simple sacrifice fly.
Two more singles and a runner caught steals made it two outs and runners on first and second for Palzkill to come off the bench to pinch hit for Durr as Palzkill this time drilled a ball to right center that had a chance to tie the game, but Lewis this time ranged even farther from center to make a running catch and keep William Woods in front.
The sixth inning coming up short felt like a recurring theme of the second game of the day as the Pride outhit WWU 12-4 over the whole game, but just couldn't get runs across the plate until that walkoff homer from Transburg as the pitching combination of Emma Slayback and Ellie Flanagan combined to strikeout six and just walk two over the 4.1 Slayback innings and 2.2 Flanagan innings with Flanagan only allowing one baserunner over her second relief outing of the day.
Behind Transburg's three hits, Sikora, Holtam, and Hefel all had two knocks in the finale after Hefel, Transburg, Harman, and Palzkill had the four hits for CU in the opener that saw William Woods jump out to a 3-0 lead also before Clarke scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth on the singles from Transburg and Harman.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Palzkill single led off the inning for a fielder's choice that was beaten out on a sacrifice bunt and an error loaded the bases with no outs for Wilson to draw a bases loaded walk and tie the game, still with no outs.
Similar to the finale where scoring opportunities were squandered, the next two hitters struck out then a pop out was forced to end the inning with the game still tied, a potential turning point in the game.
A two-out error in the top of the sixth allowed for the Owls to regain the lead, then extend it to 5-3 on a Lewis triple heading into the seventh with that lead before adding another run in the top of the inning to get to their eventual final margin of victory at 6-3.
With the split, Pride softball remains right at a .500 overall and Heart record with six more games to go in the regular season with a four-team tie for eighth place in the conference standings with CU's first doubleheader of their final stretch taking place on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. CT against Mount Mercy University for their final home games of the season at Veterans Memorial Park.