Pride drop pair of high scoring games to open series at Grand View

DES MOINES, Iowa - Wrapping their four-game series around the weekend due to weather, the Clarke University baseball team fell in both ends of Friday's doubleheader at Grand View University by final scores of 11-10 and 11-6.

Game one started off very strong for the Vikings as they produced eight runs over the first two innings getting a three run home run from Evan Borst then a five-run second inning saw Dane Schwirtz drive in a pair with a single to right then Brock Rinehart hit a three run home run of his own to make it 8-0 after just two innings.

Clarke would get on the board in the top of the third on a William Ramirez sacrifice fly then the two teams would trade solo home runs as Bryn Vantiger launched his third homer of the season in the fourth before Rinehart hit his second of the game in the fifth to put the game at 9-2 in favor of GVU.

Then a real comeback started mounting from the Pride as they would put up a six-spot in the top of the sixth to pull within a run highlighted by an Ethan Hefel grand slam that made it 9-7 at the time before Darin Eales drove in CU's eighth run with a sacrifice fly later in the sixth.

In the seventh inning, Clarke would once again put traffic on the bases but get down to their final out with Ki Crowder at the plate as he would hit a ball to center field that would fall for a double, scoring both Dean Ormonde and Eli Kelley, giving CU their first lead of the game at 10-9.

Grand View wouldn't go down without a fight though as Rinehart tied the game with his third home run of the game to lead off the seventh then an error with two outs extended the inning for Brook Heinen single down the left field line to win the game for the Vikings 11-10.

As if three home runs in a game wasn't enough, Rinehart would homer in his first at bat of game two with two outs in the bottom of the first but the Pride would answer with four runs in the bottom of the second with Vantiger producing a sacrifice fly to tie the game, Randy Lopez Acosta singling home a go-ahead run, then Ramirez driving in Lopez Acosta to make it 4-1 CU.

Grand View would proceed to score two runs in each of the bottom of the second, third, and fourth innings before a four-spot in the fifth to make it 11-4 before Lopez Acosta drove in two more runs with a double in the seventh to make it 11-6 but that's where the scoring would end.

The forecast for the weekend in Des Moines, Iowa has pushed the finale doubleheader between the Vikings and the Pride to Monday, Mar. 31 for a scheduled 2:00 p.m. CT start to game three.