Pride close weekend road trip with doubleheader sweep of Peru State

PERU, Neb. - Closing out their final two-day road trip of the 2024 regular season, the Clarke University softball team earned a doubleheader sweep over Peru State College by 4-1 and 8-6 final scores on Sunday afternoon.

Both games were victories behind dominating performances in the cirlce from Malarie Huseman as she started and threw a complete game in the opener to allow one earned run on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts as she entered in relief in game two to allow only one hit over 2.1 shutout innings and help the Pride come back from a three-run deficit.

In their 4-1 game one victory, CU scored a single run in each of the first, fourth, sixth, and seventh innings as they got RBIs on a Daija Bates single, a Mya Durr double, an Abby Archer double, and an Emma Hodnet ground out before the Bobcats would finally break through against Huseman for their lone run in the bottom of the seventh on their own RBI double but couldn't get any more action on the bases beyond that.

Clarke would take an early lead in the day's finale as Hodnet would drive in a run on a sacrifice fly in the first then Lily King would triple home a pair in the second to jump out to a 3-0 lead that would hold until the bottom of the fourth.

In that fourth inning, Peru State wold use three extra base hits and a costly error by the Pride to score four runs and take a 4-3 before adding two more runs in the bottom of the fifth on a two-RBI double toa extend to a 6-3 lead.

But a crucial six-run top of the sixth for CU would get the Pride back to work as a two-RBI single from Kaylie Holtam would regain the lead for Clarke before Hodnet singled Holtam home to extend the lead to 8-6 before Huseman would shut the door, allowing only one baserunner over the final two innings.

These two wins and their split against Park on Saturday very much keep the Pride alive for a spot in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament as they move to 7-13 in the Heart to sit in ninth place, two games behind the currrent eighth place team, Graceland University, with four games remaining for each team.

Clarke softball will return home to Veterans Memorial Park first for a mid-week non-conference doubleheader against Maranatha Baptist University on Tuesday, Apr. 23 for a 5:00 p.m. CT game one first pitch before closing out their home schedule against William Penn University on Friday.