Back-and-forth series finale ends in Pride falling 11-6 to Oklahoma City

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Looking to salvage the final game of their season-opening three-game series, the Clarke University baseball team fell short in Saturday afternoon's matchup against Oklahoma City University by an 11-6 final score.

In a game that saw the lead change three different times, the Pride jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning after a Thomas Brannon one-out single was followed up by an errant pickoff throw to first by OCU starting pitcher Connor Ferguson that sent courtsey runner Cole Swartz all the way to third base then a wild throw all the way across the diamond to third allowed Swartz to head home and score easily.

That lead would only hold until the bottom of the second when Stars left fielder Barrett Daniel hit a two-run home run to right field off of CU starter Dante Maietta to make it a 2-1 game as the home team would add one more in the inning to make it 3-1.

That would be the only inning Maietta would allow runs to score as the junior right-hander would finish his outing with those three earned runs allowed on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts over five innings.

Following another CU run with some help from another wild pickoff throw by Ferguson and then a wild pitch, the offense would pick up in the sixth inning where Clarke would regain a lead thanks to a four-run top of the sixth inning that saw Brendan O'Connor knock in two with a single, Tommy Peterson followed up with an RBI double, and Kieron Crowder capped off the inning with an RBI single.

Oklahoma City would answer with two in the bottom of the sixth, two in the bottom of the seventh, and four in the bottom of the eighth with the game-deciding RBI coming off the bat of Trent Kiraly as he doubled to center field to drive in the game's go-ahead run.

Peterson and Brannon finished the day with the only multi-hit games for the Pride as Peterson went 3-for-4 with a walk, a run, and the RBI while Brannon went 2-for-4 with a walk and everyone else in the CU lineup reaching base at least one time.

Clarke baseball will head back south next weekend when they participate in the Cajun Collision hosted by LSU-Shreveport for the second-straight year as they'll open the Collision on Friday, Feb. 9 against Southwestern Christian University.