Offensive outburst carries Pride to 10-6 mid-week win over St. Ambrose

PEOSTA, Iowa - Playing a their first non-conference home game in since the 2021 season, the Clarke University baseball team earned a 10-6 win over St. Ambrose University on Tuesday evening at A.J. Spiegel Park.

The Pride got off to a rough start as SAU scored three runs in the top of the second following a pair of CU errors as the inning was capped by a two-run double from Jake Mucha to make it 3-0.

Heading into the bottom of the fourth down 4-0, Clarke would bat around to score six runs in the inning as Jin Hattori, Alden Brown, and Alex Reynozo, would have RBI hits, Kieron Crowder drove in a run as he reached on an error, and Thomas Brannon had a two-run single to break the 4-4 tie and put Clarke up 6-4 before the inning would finally come to a close.

The Fighting Bees would answer with two runs of their own in the top of the fifth, Clarke would once again take the lead right back with a three-run fifth as they'd score on a passed ball, another Reynozo RBI single, and a bases loaded double play to put CU up 9-6.

Reynozo would drive in the final run of the game in the seventh to cap off a 3-for-5 day with a game-high three RBIs with Hattori and Randy Lopez Acosta finishing with the other multi-hit games in the Pride lineup as the six, eight, and nine hitters in the lineup, showing the lineup depth the Pride possess.

The pitching unit for the Pride saw five pitchers combine to throw the nine innings, allowing only eight hits with three of the six runs being earned, only walking two hitters and striking out five.

David Guevara and Christian Prull combined to pitch the seventh, eighth, and ninth scoreless, only allowing one baserunner on a hit off of Guevara while Luke Fredrick picked up the win with the longest stint out of the five-man staff on the day, going 2.1 innnings to move to 2-0 on the season.

Clarke baseball will be moving their weekend series against Park University to Parkville, Mo. due to the forecasted weather in the Dubuque area this weekend as weather in Parkville will also move the date of the games to this Thursday and Friday with both day's doubleheaders scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. CT.