Comebacks fall short as Pride drop both ends of finale doubleheader to Grand View

DES MOINES, Iowa - After being washed out of the weekend by weather, the Clarke University baseball team dropped their final two games of their four game series that started last Friday to Grand View University on the road on Monday afternoon.

In both games, the Vikings used big offensive innings early as they put up five runs in the bottom of the second inning following a first inning run from CU, as they manufactured all five runs with RBI singles, including two runs driven in by Dane Schwirtz and Bryce Stalder then finished the scoring with a Brock Rinehart single.

The Pride would come back firing in the next half inning when Jaxson Brooks and Bryn Vantiger produced RBI singles of their own with Brooks getting the first run of the inning across before Vantiger drove in two with a single to right, putting Clarke within a run at 5-4.

That would be where the CU offense would stall for the remainder of the game as Grand View would add two more runs with one in the fourth and another in the sixth to go up three runs and close out the series clinching win at 7-4 as Devin Doyle recorded his fourth save of the season with a scoreless seventh, striking out two.

A wild, back-and-forth, series finale would see both teams produce big innings that ended with an 8-8 tie after three innings starting with four runs in the bottom of the second from the Vikings as Rinehart continued to produce for GVU with an RBI single while Evan Borst and Brook Heinen driving in runs of their own with a single and triple respectively.

Clarke would respond in the next half inning with an eight-spot with the big swings coming from Randy Lopez Acosta and Brooks with Lopez Acosta driving a three run home run to tie the game at 4-4 for his first home run since joining the Pride last season then Brooks doubled home two to make it a 6-4 game but they wouldn't stop there.

Producing two more runs in the inning with a ground out and sacrifice fly, CU would take an 8-4 lead into the third inning when Grand View had another four run inning in the bottom of the third when Stalder tied the game with a two-RBI double to close the scoring in the inning.

In the next inning, the Vikings would break the tie with an Erik Broekemeier solo home run before adding another in the bottom of the sixth for this time Jacob Wolver to pick up a save, this time of the five-out variety for his second save of the season.

Pride baseball will be back on the road for their next Heart of America Athletic Conference series when they head to Baldwin City, Kan. for four games against Baker University starting on Saturday, Apr. 5 with each day's doubleheader slated to begin at 1:00 p.m. CT.