Pride baseball splits pair to open Kansas trip

SALINA, Kan. - Coming off of an electric offensive opening weekend, the Clarke University baseball team split their two games on Friday in a pair of neutral games against Hastings College and St. Ambrose University in Salina, Kan.

The Pride bats stayed scorching against the Broncos to open the day with a 15-3 win as they scored at least a run in all but one inning including a huge seven-run third inning to take an 11-0 run before Hastings eventually got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the third for their only runs of the game.

CU got multi-RBI games from Alden Brown, Jaxon Brooks, and Bryn Vantiger as they all finished with two RBIs as Brown had a 3-for-4 game, Brooks went 1-for-2, and Bantiber went 2-for-4 as all of Clarke's 10 hits in the game were singles.

The 11 runs by the third inning were plenty for the pitching tandem of Dante Maietta and David Jacobo as Maietta picked up his second win in as many starts with a five-inning outing where he struck out four and allowed five hits and three earned runs while Jacobo made his Pride debut with a two-innning performance out of the bullpen allowing two hits and striking out one to keep the Broncos off the board in the sixth and seventh innings.

Ending the day against a familiar non-conference foe, Clarke would drop their first game of the 2025 season by an 8-4 final against St. Ambrose as it would be a five-run top of the first inning for the Fighting Bees that would end up being enough for SAU to earn the victory.

There were a pair of big swings in the inning as Brandon Roth hit a three-run home run with one out in the first before Sam Wampler would hit a two-out RBI double then the last run would be scored on a CU error to make it 5-0 before Clarke would step up to the plate.

The Pride would be able to cut into the lead slightly in the bottom half of the inning when Brooks drove in a pair with a single as he would finish the game driving in three of the team's four runs to cut the lead to 6-4 but SAU would add some valuable insurance runs in the top of the sixth with a Brandon Matias two-RBI double that would essentially seal the deal for St. Ambrose.

Six of the eight runs were scored off of Clarke starter Ethan Hefel as he would get through 3.2 innings allowing eight hits and four walks with five of the six runs being earned while Jacob Monday allowed a pair of earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched and David Guevara struck out a pair in a scoreless seventh inning.

Clarke baseball hopes to close out the trip with a 1:00 p.m. CT game against the weekend hosts of Kansas Wesleyan University but weather forecasts could play a factor as updates to game status or time will be updated on Clarke Athletics social media accounts.