Reynozo and Maietta power Pride to game one win in series opening split with Mount Mercy

PEOSTA, Iowa - Beginning their final home weekend series of the 2025 season, the Clarke University baseball team pulled out an exciting game one victory by a 4-2 final score before Mount Mercy exacted their revenge with a 14-3 game two win at A.J. Spiegel Park on Friday afternoon.

Home runs played a big role in the first game of the series with all but one of the six total runs coming from the long ball as Pride senior second baseman Alex Reynozo got the scoring started with a second inning solo shot to left center to make it a 1-0 CU lead.

Starting pitcher Dante Maietta's only blemish on the day came on back-to-back batters in the fourth inning as he allowed a two-out single to MMU first baseman Bryce Brown to extend the inning for right fielder Josh Notriano who crushed a two-run home run to give the Mustangs a 2-1 lead.

Maietta had an efficient complete game victory, allowing just those two runs on six hits with no walks or hit batters and striking out five Mount Mercy batters to pick up his sixth win on the season on the mound.

Another two-out rally would be crucial, this time for the Pride, when Alden Brown came to the plate with Dean Ormonde on first and two outs to loft a single into left center field where Ormonde aggressively went from first to third, causing a bobble in the outfield, allowing third base coach Anthony Razo to aggressively send Ormonde home as he slid safely ahead of the throw to tie the game at 2-2.

The next batter would be Reynozo as the Wittier, Calif. native connected and launched his second home run of the day and third of the season to straight away left field to give Clarke a 4-2 lead, that would hold up with Maietta shutting the door in the seventh despite allowing the tying run to come to the plate.

Reynozo had half of the Pride hits in the game, going 3-for-3 with a single sandwiched in the middle of the two long balls with the three RBIs, two runs scored, and a stolen base while Brown, Ormonde, and Bryn Vantiger each had a hit off of MMU starter Tyler Nagelbach who had a similarly productive start for the Mustangs with six hits and five strikeouts, just like Maietta's performance for CU.

Game two was all Mount Mercy as they only went two innings without scoring runs with one in the first, two in the second, three in the fourth, then pulled away with a five-run fifth inning, and three more in the sixth.

The Mustangs were able to get three home runs in the game including a two-homer game of their own by left fielder Cedric Dunnwald as he hit a solo home run in the second inning and a three-run shot in the fifth to finish with a six-RBI game, one more than center filder Derek Einertson as he added a three-run home run in the sixth after a two-run single in the fifth inning before Dunnwald's homer.

These two Heart of America Athletic Conference rivals will wrap up their four-game series with a Saturday afternoon duobleheader in Peosta, Iowa with a scheduled first pitch of 1:00 p.m. CT between the Pride and Mustangs with CU baseball's senior day on-field ceremony scheduled for a 12:30 p.m. CT start time.