Pride drop both ends of Heart opener to No. 21 Central Methodist

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Needing to move the Heart of America Athletic Conference opener to Mount Mercy's Busse Field in Cedar Rapids, the Clarke University softball team fell in both games of their doubleheader against Central Methodist University on Saturday evening.

The Pride were unable to avoid the run rule in both games, falling 11-1 in six innings for game one and 15-5 in five innings for game two against the Eagles.

Big innings spelled trouble for CU as Central Methodist scored three or more runs in five of the seven innings that they scored over the 11 total innings between two games, including a six-run inning in both games.

In both games, Clarke was able to take an early lead as a Malarie Huseman solo home run to lead off the second inning of game one opened the scoring to make it a 1-0 Pride advantage before the Eagles answered in the top of the third with four runs as the big blow came off the bat of catcher Lauren Hill as she hit a bases clearing double with the bases loaded to break a 1-1 tie and make it 4-1.

CMU would go on to add a run in the fourth and their six-run inning in game one came in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 10 before starting pitcher Jordyn Ball closed out her complete game to move to 6-1 on the season as she allowed four hits and struck out eight Clarke batters.

Central Methodist struck first in the second game to take an early 1-0 lead before CU answered in the bottom half with a two-out, two-RBI single up the middle from catcher Abby Archer to make it 2-1 after one.

Once again, that lead was short lived as CMU answered with another six-run inning in the top of the second with another bases clearing double with the bases loaded producing for the Eagles as Madison Roberts had the big swing of the inning.

The Pride fought back with runs in the third and fourth innings to make it 7-3 in the third and 12-5 in the fourth but three runs from Central Methodist in the fifth and a shut down bottom half of the inning closed out another 10-run win.

The Pride will hope to play their home opener at Veterans Memorial Park on Sunday afternoon against Missouri Valley College with a game one first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CT. 

Rain in the forecast could change the start time of tomorrow's doubleheader and more updates will be made on social media on Sunday morning if necessary.