Five members of Pride baseball honored by Heart with postseason awards
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With the 2024 regular season complete, the Clarke University baseball team saw five of their student-athletes recognized by the Heart of America Athletic Conference as conference officials announced All-Conference Teams and season awards on Thursday afternoon.
Those five members of the Pride include seniors Thomas Brannon and Tommy Peterson, then juniors Dante Maietta, Dean Ormonde, and Jin Hattori with Brannon and Ormonde landing on the All-Heart Second Team, Maietta and Hattori earning Honorable Mention status, and Peterson being selected as the Gold Glove First Baseman for their 2024 performance.
Brannon was the top vote-getter amongst the catchers on the second team as the senior from Angelton, Texas finished his second and final year with the Pride as their leader in RBIs (49) and doubles (14), tied for the lead in home runs (8), second on the team in walks (25), and third in walks (25) to finish with a final slash line (AVG/OBP/SLG) of .331/.432/.604 in 47 games splitting most of his time between catcher and designated hitter but primarily working behind the plate for CU to throw out over 21 percent of the attempted base stealers on the season.
Ormonde, a utility infielder from Long Beach, Calif., was the second team second baseman, locking into the lineup as the Clarke leadoff hitter about midway through the season to finish with the top batting average (.388) and on base percentage (.494) on the team as his 26 walks led the Pride. Ormonde would also provide plenty of pop at the top of the order as he totaled 15 extra base hits of his 57 total hits on the season for a .537 slugging percentage with 10 doubles, three triples, and two home runs while adding 26 RBIs and stealing 11 bases on 12 attempts on the year.
The Berwyn, Ill. natvie, Maietta, who established himself as the ace on the mound for the Pride, gave CU a chance to win every game he was on the mound, leading the team in games started (12), complete games (5), innings pitched (74.2), wins (7), strikeouts (81), strikeouts per nine innings (9.76), WHIP (1.37), and ERA (4.10). Maietta also received one of the two weekly honors from the Heart during the season, earning the Heart Pitcher of the Week honor on Feb. 26 for a shutout start he threw against Jamestown University where he struck out 12 batters over a seven-inning two-hitter.
Hattori, who transferred in this season from Citrus College by way of Tokyo, Japan, made an instant impact as a utility infielder that eventually would stick at third base as he would finish with the second-best average on the team with a .362 mark in 31 games as he suffered an injury on Mar. 29 that would force him to miss 14 games during the bulk of conference play. Despite that injuiry, Hattori would still end the year with 34 hits, five doubles, three home runs, 22 RBIs and a perfect 5-for-5 on stolen bases.
Peterson snagged the lone defensive honor as the Gold Glove first baseman, finishing 2024 with only one error on a team-high 208 total defensive chances for a .995 fielding percentage with 195 putouts and 12 assists as well as being in on eight of the team's 16 double plays turned on the year. Peterson was not a slouch on the offensive side either slashing .304/.390/.416 with 35 RBIs, good for second most on the team.
Clarke baseball finished the 2024 season with a 19-29 overall record while going 14-18 in Heart play to finish ninth in the regular season standings, just outside of Heart Tournament qualification.