Long balls make the difference in Pride's doubleheader split at Baker

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Needing to move the dates of their fourth-straight conference weekend series due to weather, the Clarke University baseball team was able to pull out a split of their opening doubleheader against Baker University on Sunday afternoon.

The Wildcats were able to produce a final at-bat victory in the opener as they would win a 4-3 game one before the CU bats came alive in the finale to run away with an 11-0 win in game two.

Both teams combined for four home runs on the day with the Pride producing three of those big flies including a pair in the 11-0 win in game two as Jaxon Brooks would launch a grand slam in the top of the sixth to cap off a five-run inning then Dean Ormonde would launch a three-run shot to left in the seventh to extend their lead to the eventual final score of 11-0.

Brooks and Alden Brown would both produce RBIs in the top of the first to put CU up 2-0 after a half inning as Brooks grounded out to short with runners on first and third and no outs before Brown would double home the second run to make it 2-0.

That run support was plenty for game two starting pitcher Christian Prull as the junior tossed six scoreless frames of four-hit ball while only walking two batters and striking out a career-high eight batters.

At bats from Ki Crowder and Jin Hattori would get the scoring in the sixth and seventh innings started as Crowder singled to center field in the sixth to produce the early insurance runs before the big swings later and Hattori walked on a wild pitch in the seventh that would send Cole Swartz home from third as he was on as the courtesy runner for catcher Bryn Vantiger.

Brown had five hits on the day between the two games as he drove in all three of Clarke's game one runs with a three-run home run in the top of the first to take a 3-0 lead early on BU in that game.

The Pride would get at least one runner on base in every other inning of game one after the first but couldn't produce a rally as Baker would get a run back in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly and then threaten again in the fifth and sixth innings with runners in scoring position for Dante Maietta to pitch out of those jams.

The first two batters of the seventh would reach for the Wildcats in the seventh as Maietta struck out the next two batters, to be one out away from the series opening win but BU designated hitter Eli Young would connect on a walk off three-run home run to left field for the Baker 4-3 victory.

Hattori, Alex Reynozo, and Randy Lopez Acosta all had two-hit games for the Pride along with Brown in game one as Maietta's final line finished at 6.2 innings pitched four runs, three earned, on six hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.

Clarke and Baker will finish up the series with their second-straight doubleheader in Baldwin City, Kan. on Monday, Apr. 7 with a game three scheduled first pitch of 12:00 p.m. CT.