Maietta's shutout highlights first day in Kansas City for Pride baseball
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Getting back to game action for the first time since Feb. 10, the Clarke University baseball team earned a 5-0 win over Jamestown University and a 14-8 loss against Baker University on Saturday in Kansas City.
The game against Jamestown saw the Pride earn their first shutout victory of the season behind the complete game two-hitter from junior right hander Dante Maietta as he struck out 12 batters and only walked one in seven innings of work to move his ERA to 2.50 in the early parts of 2024.
The first three innings went scoreless before CU broke through with a Tommy Peterson sacrifice fly, scoring courtesy runner Cole Swartz who reached third base after a wild pickoff throw upon his entry into the game to run for catcher Thomas Brannon.
A bases loaded walk made it 2-0 after six innings before the Pride added three in the top of the seventh, scoring the fifth run of the game on a Jin Hattori RBI single after a Brendan O'Connor two run home run that made it 4-0 at the time.
O'Connor finished 2-for-4 with the only multi-hit game in the opener for Clarke as Hattori had two RBIs as the batter who walked with the bases loaded in the sixth inning along with his seventh inning RBI single.
Multi-run innings were the theme of the rare non-conference matchup against fellow Heart team Baker as the Wildcats scored no less than two runs in any inning they scored while CU's three different scoring innings saw them put three runs across the plate twice and two runs in another.
The three-inning stretch between the second and fourth was what really carried Baker to their victory as they took advantage of three walks in the first four batters of the second inning to score three runs on back-to-back doubles in the second, a Jon Jenkins three-run home run in the third made it 6-2 after CU answered with a pair in the bottom of the second, then six runs on three hits and three walks that was capped off by a Jenkins grand slam made it 12-2 in the top of the fourth.
Clarke would answer again in the bottom half of the fourth as O'Connor smacked a bases clearing triple with the bases loaded to make it 12-5 before Kolden Howerton homered to get Baker to 14-5 and another Clarke rally in the bottom of the seventh would produce three runs on a Hattori two-RBI single and another RBI single from Dean Ormonde but the inning would come to a hault after that.
Hattori would finish the day's finale 2-for-4 with those two RBIs and a run scored, O'Connor's triple would finish off a three-hit, five-RBI day, and Kieron Crowder finished game two 3-for-4 out of the leadoff spot with two RBIs and a run scored to finish the day in total with four hits, three runs, and two RBIs at the top of the order.
Pride baseball will face two new opponents on Sunday when they face Doane University and Morningside University at 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. CT respectively in Kansas City to wrap up their weekend.