Pride and Yellowjackets split each day of Heart-opening series

NORWALK, Iowa - It was a "10 is the magic number" weekend for the Clarke University baseball team as they split their four game series to open play in the Heart of America Athletic Conference against Graceland University with doubleheader splits on both Saturday and Sunday.

In each of their wins on the weekend, in both day's opening game, the Pride produced 10 runs in a 10-3 win on Saturday followed by a 10-0 shutout on Sunday as the two games CU lost finished more low scoring in a 5-3 Saturday win for the Yellowjackets and closing out the series with a 1-0 win in the final game on Sunday.

In support of Dante Maietta's eight-strikeout complete game win on Saturday, Clarke bashed four home runs including a two-homer game from senior first baseman Alden Brown as the righty got the scoring started in the top of the third for CU to tie the game at 1-1 before Alex Reynozo would give the Pride the lead later in the inning with an RBI single to score Cole Swartz.

It would be another two-spot in the fourth inning for the Pride when Darin Eales and Bryn Vantiger would go back-to-back with solo shots ahead of a four-run fifth inning that would be capped off by Brown's second home run of the game, this time a two-run shot to make it an 8-1 CU advantage.

Clarke would add two more in the sixth inning but that would be plenty for Maietta who earned his fifth win on the season while allowing nine hits and three earned runs for his second complete game in as many starts.

Graceland would turn the tides in the second game of Saturday's opening double dip as Brown opened the scoring with his fourth RBI of the day on a single to left but a three-run third and a single run in each the fourth and fifth innings would put GU in front and extend their lead enough to stave off a seventh inning comeback attempt from the Pride as they scored on a Ki Crowder RBI double and a bases loaded hit batter to make it 5-3, where Zach Tanabe would shut the door on Clarke's hopes of extending the game on the next batter.

Sunday started off with a bang for the Pride as they would jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a Reynozo two-RBI single before Jin Hattori would drive in a pair following a bases loaded wild pitch that would score a run and it was 5-0 CU after two innings.

It would take until the top of the seventh before more runs would get on the board when William Ramirez, Randy Lopez Acosta Hattori, Eales, and Reynozo all produced RBIs to double the Clarke lead to its eventual final at 10-0.

The top three in the order of Ramirez, Lopez Acosta, and Hattori did a lot of the damage as the trio all had mutli-hit, multi-run games with at least an RBI with Crowder also turning the lineup over from the nine-spot to score a pair of runs after getting a hit and hit by a pitch.

Junior Ethan Hefel would produce his best outing on the mound so far this season getting all 21 outs for the four-hit shutout with only one walk allowed and finishing the game with two strikeouts for his second pitching win of the season.

Hefel's game three performance was matched by Graceland's Gabriel Peréz in the finale as he threw his own four-hit shutout to shut down the CU offense with four strikeouts and two walks as he was "Mr. Do-It-All" for the Yellowjackets, also driving in the lone run of the game in the bottom of the third with an RBI single.

Carson Possehl for the Pride had a strong outing of his own, although in a losing effort, as he went five strong innings of three-hit ball with no walks and two strikeouts before Jacob Monday put up a zero in the sixth inning, striking out two batters.

Pride baseball will look to get on to their home field of A.J. Spiegel Park in Peosta, Iowa for their home opener in another Heart series against Peru State College with the series scheduled for Saturday and Sunday Mar. 15-16 and each day's first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CT.