Clarke University traveled down to Columbia, Missouri this weekend to take on the Stars in a two by four feature Saturday and Sunday. Clarke University came in 2-2 and the Stars 3-6 in hopes to bring their record back to .500.
In game one, Elise Kendrick, the hard throwing right hander, took the mound in hopes of getting the Stars off to a good start. The opposition started their undefeated pitcher in Malarie Huseman and both pitchers were finding their way around the umpires strike zone. Clarke got off to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, however, the Stars pounced on Huseman in the third scoring of a Ellie Kliethermes triple, scoring three runs. Elise Kendrick then singled bringing Kliethermes home. The Stars has some fielding errors in the fifth, allowing Clarke to regain the lead. Up 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth, Avery Throckmorton doubled bringing in her counter part Anabel Throckmorton. From that point on, Clarke U scored four more runs in the next two innings and won the game 10-5.
Our 2:00 PM game was a very different story for the Stars as this is the offense we all expected at the start of the season. Gillian Hale (2-3) has been finding her groove lately as she threw four innings against Clarke U and only allowed two hits, one run with one walk and one strike out. She was able to be free with her pitching because the offense so quite potent. The Stars were running the bath pathes in the first inning, scoring five with Avery Throckmorton, Elise Kendrick, Mia Adriano all doubling and racking up RBI's. In the third, Adriano stepped up again with another hit, scoring Kendrick and then again in the fourth bring the Stars to a 11-1 lead by the top of the fifth inning. Clarke did everything they could to not get mercy ruled, scoring 3 in the fifth inning. The Stars, knowing they only needed one more run to close the game out brought Mariah Thibodeaux to hit a bomb to the fence, tripling and scoring Anabel Throckmorton to end the game 12-4.
Games three and four had the Stars struggling on the offensive end of the plate scoring only one run in the next two games. Clark had Malarie Huseman and Calli Beck starting for the Crusaders throwing a combined fourteen innings. The Stars managed to get hits, but just at times when runners weren't on base. We saw thirteen hits in the two games, but to only score one run won't get it done. The biggest take away from these games is the base running as the Stars got picked off a few times.
The Stars look to bounce back against Southwest Baptist University on March 11th at Battle High School.
