Pride have late chances but fall in both ends of doubleheader at Olivet Nazarene

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. - Back on the road shortly after a weekend road trip, the Clarke University softball team dropped a pair of games to Olivet Nazarene University on Tuesday afternoon by scores of 3-0 and 5-4.

Both games saw the Pride trailing by three or more runs with two outs in the top of the seventh inning and the tying run at the plate where the Tigers were able to close out the opener but the finale saw a CU rally from down 4-0 start with a Lauren Hefel sacrifice fly then continued by a Teal Transburg RBI single, then a bases loaded wild pitch would score two runs, including the tying run as Kynadee Harris scored from second after the initial throw back to the plate was thrown away leaving nobody covering home plate.

A shut down bottom of the seventh from Meredith Gatto, who came in to pitch in relief of a strong start from Payge Pyszka, took the game into extra innings where the international rule put a runner on second base and a sacrifice bunt gave the Pride a runner on third with one out.

Clarke would be unable to cash in after a fly out and a strikeout would get Olivet Nazarene out of the jam before they used the same strategy in the bottom of the eighth where Gatto got a one out strikeout then Stephanie Hause would come through in the clutch with a single to left center to walk it off for the Tigers.

Pyszka's start came down to a three-run bottom of the first then another run in the second as the junior recovered from that start to shut ONU down and finish at six innings allowing six hits and striking out four ONU hitters with all four runs scoring over that stretch being unearned.

CU had traffic on the bases throughout the game, finishing with 11 hits and nine runners left on base but were unable to cash in on various opportunities throughout the entire day as game one saw Clarke only have one hit through six innings before a pair of seventh inning hits gave the Pride a chance with the tying run at the plate.

Allie Timm earned the win in the circle in both games as she started the opener to throw a complete game with 10 strikeouts before shutting the door on Clarke's chance to take a lead in the seventh and the eighth.

Gatto took the loss in both games with five strikeouts over six innings in the opener allowing three earned runs then added a strikeout in the second game to total 7.1 innings pitched on the day, seven hits, and four runs, three earned.

Clarke softball will now jump into Heart of America Athletic Conference play this weekend when they hit the road for the Kansas City metro area for a pair of doubleheaders against Baker University and Benedictine College starting with Friday's set against the Wildcats for a 12:00 p.m. CT scheduled first pitch for game one.