Pride drop both ends of Senior Day doubleheader against William Penn
DUBUQUE, Iowa - Starting a crucial weekend of their final four games in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University softball team was unable to come away with a win in 2-1 and 7-2 losses to William Penn University on Thursday evening at Veterans Memorial Park.
In between the pair of games, the Pride softball program honored seniors Leah Gray, Malarie Huseman, Olivia Uecker, Ashley Roberts, Daija Bates, Elizabeth Leverton, Abby Archer, Lily King, and Brianna Laughlin in their final set of home games in Dubuque of their CU careers.
Clarke would take early 1-0 leads in both games, as they scored a run in the bottom of the second in the opener and one in the bottom of the first in the finale but would only get one more run across in the totality of the other 12 innings of the day and combine for 12 hits on the day.
The opener would see the Pride hang on to that 1-0 lead into the sixth inning as the Statesmen would use back-to-back hits starting with a Tori Smith lead off double followed by a Peyton Naranjo single that was just out of reach of the glove of CU first baseman Kynadee Harris down the right field line to score Smith and tie the game.
Another leadoff hit for WPU then a stolen base would eventually lead to a second and third situation with one out as pitcher Chelsey Huff would cash in to give herself a lead on a ground out to second that would score the runner from third, putting the game at the eventual 2-1 final.
Huff would outduel the Clarke starting pitcher of Huseman as Huff would finish allowing five hits and one walk over her seven inning outing while striking out 11 batters and Huseman would allow six hits and four walks while striking out seven in her complete game.
The game two one-run lead would be short lived as they would put up a four-run top of the second to lead 4-1 as CU would add a run in the bottom of the fourth on a Mya Durr RBI single but then a three run top of the seventh would push the Statesmen further ahead to their eventual final score of 7-2.
King would finish game two with two hits for a three-hit day and Bates went 2-for-3 in game one and game two starting pitcher Meredith Gatto finished her 6.1-inning outing allowing six runs, four earned, on 12 hits with one walk and striking out three hitters.
Clarke softball will wrap up the 2024 regular season on Saturday when they travel to Canton, Mo. to face Culver-Stockton College for a doubleheader against the Wildcats scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. CT.