Pride score 21 runs to take the first two games over William Penn

PEOSTA, Iowa – After losing their five-game winning streak on Wednesday, the Clarke University baseball team have begun a new streak after winning the first two games of a four-game weekend against William Penn University on Friday evening.

After a 1-2-3 top of the first inning in game one, Thomas Brannon got the scoring started mashing his second homer of the year to left field giving the Pride a 1-0 lead. Scoring again in their half of the second, Maguire Fitzgerald hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring Johnny Blake who singled earlier in the inning to make it 2-0.

The lead didn't last long because Franklin Aparicio tripled home their first run and would later score on a groundout to second by first baseman Tim Jean to tie the game at 2-2.

Scoring four runs in their half of the third, the Pride began the inning with a Brendan O'Connor walk followed by Brannon getting hit allowing him to reach first. Three batters later, Blake doubled home both runners with two outs to take a 4-2 lead. Next batter, Daniel Phyle hit his second homer of the year to give Isaac Rohde a 6-2 cushion.

Rohde would get hit around the next couple innings as the Statesmen would score three in both the fourth and fifth inning. Rohde would be relieved by Nic Cortez after going 4.2 innings, giving up seven earned runs and striking out six.

Scoring in their first three innings, the Pride would be unable to cross home again until the sixth inning where they would have 10 men come to the plate helping them score five runs. Getting three of those RBIs was shortstop Bubba Thompson who hit his team-leading seventh homer of the year to give Clarke back the lead at 9-8. Two more runners would score later in the inning on an infield error to give Cortez an 11-8 cushion as he looked to close it out.

Cortez would sit the Statesmen down in order to give the Pride the game one victory as he picked up his first win of the year going 2.1 innings and impressively only surrendering one hit.

Not being able to get a hit in game one, Victor Lara had a solid performance in the second, scoring all three timeshe reached and finishing with three RBI's. His first run came after he started the first with a double and was brought in by Brannon single to right field.

Going into the second down 2-1, the Pride would put up a seven spot thanks to six hits and a pair of errors. The highlights of the inning were a Fitzgerald triple to right center, scoring Kieron Crowder who started in left field. Also, O'Connor hitting his sixth homer of the year to the deepest part of center, scoring Lara.

The seven-run second inning was all Tyson Tucker needed to pick up his first complete game of the year, only giving up three earned runs and striking out eight batters for his fifth win.

Pride baseball will continue their four-game series against William Penn University on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 11:00 am CST.