Pride drop final pair of games at Doane

CRETE, Neb. - In their final non-conference weekend series of the 2025 season, the Clarke University baseball team was unable to pull out a win on Sunday afternoon at Doane University in 7-5 and 3-1 losses to the Tigers.

Back-to-back big innings led to a pair of lead changes in the fifth as the Pride captured three runs in the top of the inning with RBIs from a Randy Lopez Acosta single, an Alex Reynozo fielder's choice, and a Darin Eales sacrifice fly to make it 4-1 CU.

In the bottom half, Doane would answer with a six-run fifth inning where they would tie the game on a Max Harris RBI single then taking the lead two batters later, after a pitching change away from starter Ethan Hefel to David Jacobo, on a Johnny Vulcano RBI single to left field before adding on two more runs to finish the inning.

Clarke would get another run back in the sixth but that would be all as cade Bridges would close ou the win after taking over in the middle of that three-run top of the fifth to earn the win in 2.2 relief innings allowing just one hit and one run.

Vulcano and Carter Roth would finish with multi-hit games for the Tigers as the only two-hit performance from the Pride in both games came from Cole Swartz in the leadoff spot as he went 2-for-3 with a walk in the opener and 2-for-4 in the finale producing two of the team's three hits in the 3-1 loss.

DU scored their three runs in the first two innings off of Clarke starter Carson Possehl on a sacrifice fly and RBI ground out in the first then a passed ball in the second as CU's only run came in the top of the sixth on another Reynozo RBI fielder's choice.

Possehl along with relievers Zach Arnold and Jacob Monday produced a solid outing on the mound combining for two earned runs on seven hits and just one walk but didn't miss many bats with just two strikeouts in the game.

Pride baseball will begin Heart of America Athletic Conference play next weekend when they travel to Lamoni, Iowa for a four-game series against Graceland University with the Mar. 8-9 doubleheaders set to begin each on each day at 1:00 p.m. CT.