Park University's softball program played a good pair of games against Clarke University on Friday night in Dubuque, Iowa against Clarke University, earning the sweep against the Pride, 15-5 and 10-5.

Park is collecting some needed Heart wins and now is 17-16 and 6-10 in conference play. The Pride on the other hand are 10-19 overall and 3-9 in the Heart.

The Pirates had their most hits this season with 17 and 16 hits, respectively.

GAME 1 BOX SCORE | 15-5

It was a marathon of runs that came in during the first game for the Pirates. Park scored in each inning for a grand total of 15 runs, their most runs scored this season.

Park had a 5-0 lead when the top of the third closed. Kali Day and Shelby Sanders homered in the third inning to put Park in the driver's seat. Day finished the game with six RBI's and was a perfect four-for-four at the plate.

Besides Day and Sanders, Halle Magee and Emma James had extra-base hits with one double each.

Both teams line scores were a mirror image in the run column in the third and fourth innings. As mentioned, Park scored their three, but then Clarke got those runs back with a three-run bottom of the third. Similarly in the fourth, both teams scored two runs.

The Pirates broke the game open in the top of the fifth though with a four-run inning on three hits and two Clarke errors. All four runs came in with two outs. Macee Austin and Day each had RBI singles in the inning.

With a 11-5 lead for Park, four more runs crossed in the last two innings for a 15-5 final score.

Adrianna Solary and Dakota Rau combined efforts to keep the Clarke Pride at five runs scored. Rau pitched the final 3.2 innings and earned the win. She only allowed one hit and kept the Pride from scoring past the fourth inning.

Three Pirates made hitting look easy, going four-for-four in the game. Day, Halle Magee, and Nia Muniz were perfect in the game and had 12 of Park's 17 hits.

Clarke committed five errors in the game compared to Park's one.

GAME 2 BOX SCORE | 10-5

Rau continued pitching in game two and lasted 1.2 innings and allowed two earned runs. Lauren Fiene came in behind Rau and threw 5.1 innings for the win. Fiene struck out six batters in her relief outing.

The Pride were the first to score in game two and led 2-0 after the second inning.

Sanders immediately did a job to tie the game off two-RBI single up the middle to tie the game at 2-2.

Three runs poured in for Park in the fourth inning. Four hits and a wild pitch boosted Park to a 5-2 lead. Lexie Emma James got the inning going with a single to centerfield followed by Carmen Miller's double to left center to move James and herself in scoring position.

Lexie Schroeder kept the line moving with the a single to left field and Austin came through with Park's fourth straight hit to score Schroeder.

The Pride clawed their way back into the game with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 5-4.

Four runs on four hits and one error in the top of the sixth put the game to bed though, as Park eventually arrived at a 10-5 score when the game was said and done. Muniz, Day, and Sanders had the clutch hits in the inning, including a double by Sanders for her third RBI of the game.

Three Pirates had three-hit performances in game two, including Sanders, Miller, and Lexie Schroeder.  

The Pirates again had less errors in the game, as the Pride had two errors committed compared to only one for Park.

The Pirates move over to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a doubleheader with Mount Mercy University at noon on Saturday, April 15. Watch the live-action here.