Pride runaway with pair of doubleheader victories over Maranatha Baptist

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Returning to their home field for their final non-conference games of the 2024 season, the Clarke University softball team earned a pair of run rule victories over Maranatha Baptist University on Tuesday night by 18-1 and 14-1 final scores.

Both games saw the Clarke offense produce matching run totals in the first and second innings as the opener saw CU produce nine run innings in each of the first and second while the finale would have the Pride score five runs in the first two innings before adding two runs each in the third and fourth.

Offensively, the Pride had various standout performances between the two games including seven players with three or more RBIs over their two games worth of plate appearances as Ashley Roberts, Olivia Uecker, and Olivia Sikora all finished the day with four runs driven in then Kennedi LeDuff, Teal Transburg, Brianna Laughlin, and Hannah Palzkill all added three RBIs on the day.

In the circle, each game saw a duo of CU pitchers record the 15 outs as both Annika Husemann (game two) and Madison Gonzalez (game one) pitched three innnigs of their games with Karlee Transburg (game one) and Ella Wetjen (game one) finishing with the most strikeouts of the tandems in each of their games with Wetjen recording a strike out for each of the six outs she made and Transburg striking out four of her six outs.

Clarke softball will return to the Heart of America Athletic Conference schedule when they play their final home games on Thursday, Apr. 25 when they host William Penn University for CU's Senior Day at Veterans Memorial Park.