Pride opens home and Heart slate with blowout and walkoff wins over Graceland
PEOSTA, Iowa - Returning to action after a week layoff to play their first home games and first official games in the Heart of America Athletic Conference schedule, the Clarke University baseball team earned a pair of wins over Graceland University by 18-2 and 3-2 finals on Saturday at A.J. Spiegel Park.
Skipping ahead to game two's one-run victory, the Pride had to mount a small comeback effort against GU as the Yellowjackets took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first off of CU starter Kevin Toala as a pair of RBI singles plated runs after two outs.
Toala would settle in nicely after that shaky first inning, allowing just one more hit over the following six innings to produce a final complete game line of two earned runs on four hits and four walks with five strikeouts to pick up the victory.
Clarke was able to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth when an Omari Barksdale infield single combined with a throwing error allowed Jaxon Brooks to score and make it 2-1 before Cole Swartz scored Barksdale later in the inning with a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2, where it would remain into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Nico Reed led off the inning for the Pride with a walk and a preceded to steal second for Eli Kelley to drop down a bunt, that would advance Reed to third before another wild throw from Graceland allowed Reed to come around from third and score the winning run and walk it off for the home team to sweep the day.
If the excitement of the walkoff to finish the day wasn't enough, the 18-run outburst from the Clarke offense in the opener got the day off on a high note as they only led 3-1 after three innings and 3-2 after the top of the fourth, but an eight-run bottom of the fourth followed by a seven-run bottom of the fifth put the CU run total to 18 in somewhat quick fashion to make it a comfortable victory by the end of the opening seven inning.
Reed was in the middle of a lot of the action again, going 4-for-4 from the nine spot in the order, scoring three runs and driving in two more with Swartz also banging out a pair of hits to drive in one and score twice while both Barksdale and Ethan Hefel were able to drive in three runs without the benefit of a hit.
Clarke's ability to get on base outside of the 10 hits they recorded paid dividends in the opener as they walked nine times and were also hit by a pitch four times and reached base one other time on an error to have the batter reach first 24 times in the six innings they came to the plate.
On the mound in game one, David Jacobo twirled five solid innings, allowing the pair of earned runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out four batters as he was backed up by single inning relief outings from both Tommy Rimoldi and Alex Cashman with Rimoldi producing a one-two-three sixth and Cashman striking out all three of his outs in the seventh for the win.
The Pride and Yellowjackets will finish off their four-game series on Sunday in Peosta with another doubleheader, this time starting at 12:00 p.m. CT at A.J. Spiegel Park as Clarke looks to start Heart play 4-0.