WPU Rebounds to Get Split with Clarke in League Twinbill
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Oskaloosa–The Statesmen softball team was a little bit Jekyll and a little bit Hyde Tuesday as it split a Heart of America Athletic Conference doubleheader with Clarke.
William Penn (19-25, 10-14 Heart) lost the opener 8-0 in five innings, but bounced back to win the nightcap 9-5.
The hosts trailed just 3-0 after four innings of the first contest, but allowed five runs in the fifth frame in the loss. Abby Young (Jr., Dunlap, Ill., Exercise Science) paced the offense with two of WPU’s three hits, while the Pride (7-22, 5-19 Heart) tallied eight base knocks.
The William Penn offense found its groove in the second outing, finally getting on the board in the second, courtesy of a double by Lindsay Lambert (Sr., Elk Grove, Calif., Elementary Education) that scored Whitney Stone (Fr., Roseburg, Ore., Education), who led off with a walk.
Clarke claimed its lone lead of the matchup with two runs in the top of the third, but WPU jumped back out in front with a four-run bottom of the third. Five of the team’s 13 hits came in the frame, including an RBI double by Emily Brown (Sr., Waverly, Iowa, Biology) and run-scoring singles from Stone and Hayley Freestone (Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management).
The Statesmen then replicated that half inning in the fourth as Brown again drove in a run on a one-bagger. Jasmine Gonzalez (Fr., Las Vegas, Nev., Kinesiology) also managed an RBI single and Lambert tacked on two more RBIs with a single of her own. Lambert finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
Cruising with a 9-2 advantage, the navy and gold slipped some in the sixth, permitting three Pride runs, but the margin would not diminish anymore as the split was secured.
Kiya Harper (Jr., Decatur, Ill., Exercise Science) guided the offense by going 3-for-4 (two runs), while Brown and Resa matched Lambert with a pair of hits. Lexi Resa (So., Liberty, Mo., Biology), Brown, and Stone, like Harper, touched home plate twice as well.
Harper kept the CU batters, who finished with seven hits, at bay down the stretch as well, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief.
Next Up: William Penn travels to Des Moines Friday to face #24 Grand View in a Heart doubleheader at 1 p.m.
