Pride end season on a high note earning doubleheader split with No. 11 Grand View

DUBUQUE, Iowa - A season full of ups and downs finished on one of the highest highs for the Clarke University softball team on Monday afternoon as they were able to split their doubleheader with No. 11 Grand View University to finish off their 2022 regular season.

CU was able to bounce back from an 11-1 loss in the first game of the day to pull off a 4-3 win over the Vikings behind the arm and bat of Malarie Huseman in the season finale.

Huseman was fantastic in the circle for a complete game two-hitter as two of the three runs she allowed were unearned while she struck out three opposing hitters and only walked two.

Her bat also did a lot of talking as she drove in three runs on her 2-for-3 game including a big two-run go-ahead home run to left center to give the Pride a 4-2 lead at the time. The Dubuque native also drove in the first run of the game with an RBI double to left center to put CU up 1-0 after the first inning.

After Grand View took the lead with two runs in the second, some solid baserunning from Lily King tied the score at 2-2 after an Izriah Hodson sacrifice bunt would move King to second as she took advantage of nobody covering third to advance another base but then noticed after the ball was in the pitcher's glove that nobody was covering home so she bolted for the plate safely to score before the pitcher entered the circle to kill the play dead.

The Vikings made it interesting in the seventh as they drove in a run to cut the lead to 4-3 but Huseman was able to get out of the jam with the tying run on second base to secure the victory over their ranked foe as that win was the first for the Pride over Grand View since the 2017 season.

As the 2022 season comes to a close Clarke softball finished with an 11-37 overall record and a 5-31 record in the Heart of America Athletic Conference as they hope to build off of winning four of their final nine games of the season.