Thompson bashes on his birthday as the Pride sweep William Penn series
PEOSTA, Iowa - Looking to clinch yet another series win and their second-straight home series sweep, the Clarke University baseball team pounded out another 27 runs after scoring 21 on Friday to win both games of Saturday's doubleheader against William Penn University.
In their 13-4 and 14-5 games three and four wins respectively, the Pride scored two or more runs in each inning they plated a runner led by CU's shortstop Bubba Thompson who celebrated his 22nd birthday with an overall 5-for-6 day with a pair of two-run home runs that resulted in four total RBIs, seven runs scored, and a walk draw in each game.
It would be difficult to go up and down the Clarke batting order in each game and not find other members of the Pride that finished with a hit, let alone mutliple hits throughout the day, as CU catcher Thomas Brannon unsurprisingly had a pair of multi-hit games on Saturday as he capped off this Saturday with his own pair of two-run home runs in his final two at bats of the day in game two's 14-5 win as his slash line now moves to .500/.618/.797, leading the team in average and on-base percentage to now be second on the team in slugging percentage.
The rest of the Clarke hitters that highlighted the day with multi-hit games were all in game three as Tommy Peterson bashed three hits along with Thompson then Brendan O'Connor, Maguire Fitzgerald, and Kieron Crowder all had two-hit performances.
The day didn't start off as smoothly as it would end for the Pride as game three starter Johnny Blake struggle to find command in the top of the first, hitting a batter and walking another before the Statesmen took a 2-0 lead after the top of the first that they would hold into the bottom of the second.
Blake would settle in nicely to not give up a run for the remainder of his outing and earn his fourth win of the season after going six innings allowing those two runs on five hits with just that one walk in the first and seven strikeouts.
Clarke would start their offensive surge on a controversial call that came off of the bat of Thompson as he lofted a ball into center field where the WPU centerfielder Abraham Arroyo would make a diving effort coming in as the ball was called a trap and not a catch by the home plate umpire, allowing Thompson to lead off the bottom of the second with a double and the Pride would eventually score four run in that inning.
The game four starter for Clarke, Greg Bennett would start his third Heart game in eight days as he started game two against Missouri Valley last Friday, the opening game of Wednesday's makeup doubleheader against Graceland, then again on Saturday in game four. Bennett would go deep into the game, pitching into the sixth but wouldn't get an out, finishing with five innings pitched and four runs, three earned, allowed on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
Brendan Boily and Luke Fredrick would relieve Bennett to not allow any earned runs over the sixth and seventh as Boily did inherit two of Bennett's runners that scored and allowed an unearned run on a hit with a strikeout and Fredrick threw a three-up, three-down seventh inning.
Clarke baseball will get back on the road next week with a non-conference matchup against St. Ambrose University on Wednesday afternoon before a big Heart North series on the road against Mount Mercy University starting next Saturday.