Pride split twin bill with Northwestern for second-straight day

JOPLIN, Mo. - Following their split in the first day of their four-game series in Joplin, Mo., the Clarke University baseball team repeated their Thursday performance with another split on Friday against Northwestern College with a 6-4 loss and a 12-4 win.

In game two's win, the bats came alive behind a solid starting performance from Brendan Boily on the mound as CU cracked 12 hits, with six extra basehits as every starter for the Pride recorded a hit and scored a run in the game.

Boily went five innings while only allowing one earned run on five hits two two strikeouts and a walk for his first start and win of the year after picking up the save in CU's win last Saturday against Faulkner.

At the plate, Bryce Hinton smacked his second home run in as many days as Taiga Sato, Andrew Swartz, and Maguire Fitzgerald all had two hits in the game with Hinton, Jordan Sadovia, and Kevin Javier each driving in two runs for Clarke.

In the day's opener, the Raiders gained an early lead in the first and never relinquished it as the Pride would come within a run in the fifth before allowing NWC to score a pair in the bottom half and another in the sixth to lead 6-2. CU didn't quit down four in the seventh as they rattled off a pair of runs and had the go-ahead run at the plate with two outs before Northwestern was able to close it out for the win.

Jordan Sadovia had a strong day offensively coming in as a defensive replacement in the opener as he went 2-for-2 with a solo home run and a double in the game as Bryce Simon and Darius Bradley each contributed a pair of hits at the top of the order.

Clarke baseball is scheduled to be off until next Friday when they head back south to face Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn. for a four-game series against the Phoenix over Feb. 18-19.