Huseman's five perfect innings leads to Heart Pitcher of the Week honor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Opening their 2024 season with a pair of victories last Saturday, the Clarke University softball team also gets some conference praise as senior Malarie Huseman received the Heart of America Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week honor, Heart officials announced Monday afternoon.

The Dubuque native was perfect in the Pride's five inning 8-0 victory over Viterbo University in Austin, Minn. last Saturday as she went 15-up and 15-down in the run rule game. Huseman struck out nearly half of the batters she faced with seven punchouts in the game while also produced five outs through the air and three more on the ground as the only inning without a strikeout came in the third.

Huseman has been CU's top pitcher since joining the team in the 2021-22 school year as she has leads the team in innings since the start of the 2022 season with 254.1 before the start of this season as she finished with a 3.28 ERA in 2022 and a 4.28 ERA in 2023 with her 124-strikeout season in 2022, the second most in school history.

Clarke softball will hope to build off of their strong 2-0 start in the 2024 season as they'll next play a doubleheader in Aurora, Ill. against Trinity Christian College for a 9:00 a.m. CT first pitch on Feb. 23.