Park University's baseball program continues to hold their own in the Heart of America Athletic Conference and earned the split with Clarke University on Thursday and Friday this past week at Comfort Field.

With the split the Pirates are now 18-8 and a respectable 10-6 in Heart play, while the Pride are 12-16 and 7-5 in conference play. The Pirates jump Clarke in the Heart standings and are now at 4^th and the Pride now stand at 6^th.

GAME 1 | L, 3-11 | Box Score

The game began with a solo home run from Gilberto Torres for the Pirates in the top of the first. Park would not be able to score again until the sixth though in their five hit game.
The Pride were able to break through in the bottom of the third with Raul Garcia on the bump for Park. The Pride had a three-run inning on a double and home run, and then followed that up for a two-run bottom of the fourth for a 5-1 lead.

Garcia would pitch through five innings before handing it off to Alex Lozada for the sixth.

The Pirates made it a 5-3 game off of a Billy Rivera single up the middle to score Yadiel Santana. Later in the inning Gunnar Griffin would score Park's last run on a wild pitch from third base. In the sixth, Park had two hits and capitalized on two errors by Clarke.

The bottom of the sixth was what did Park in as six runs came in to score on three hits and one error by Park for the game's final score of 11-3.

GAME 2 | W, 8-0 | Box Score

It was another great start from Guillermo Gelpi, as he moved to 5-1 on the season after a complete game, shutout of the Pride. The junior from Bayomon, Puerto Rico only allowed three hits, zero walks, and struck out six.

With Gelpi on the mound, the Pirates also brought the bats in game two, getting the games first runs in the top of the third. Torres drove in the first runs in two consecutive games to give the Pirates the lead. This time he drove in two RBI's on a single to left field. Victor Sanchez-Ramos hit a sacrifice fly next, followed by an RBI single from Corey Bradford to centerfield for a 4-0 lead.

The next inning Park added another run off of a double from Torres. Bradford would follow suit with an RBI double in the fifth. Then the last two runs would be tacked on with a double from Ricardo Hernandez and a sacrifice fly from Sanchez for the 8-0 win.

GAME 3 | W, 12-2 | Box Score

A 10-run first inning was the story line in game three, featuring a three-RBI game from Sanchez. The Pirates immediately got to Clarke with six hits in the first. Sanchez doubled to bring in two runs, then Zayne Morrow singled to score another. Two hit batters brought in runs for Park as well. Alex Rodriguez, Santana, and Hernandez each brought in runs for Park.

Adam Stilts went a complete game after seeing his team put up a big number for him and is now 4-1 on the year.

Two more runs came in the top of the third to arrive at the 12-2 score.

Four Pirates had multiple RBI games and then the one through three batters had multi-hit games as well.

GAME 4 | L, 1-5 | Box Score

It was lower scoring for Park in game four, but for the fourth straight game in the series, the Pirates got to the lead first. Park scored their lone game four run in the top of the second on a ground out from Edward Gonzalez.

The Pride answered in the bottom of the third and then scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth for the win, 5-1.

Bryan Aguirre pitched 4.2 innings on the mound with Michael Hoffman coming in to finish the last out in the fifth. Bryce Perdieu came in for the final frame as well with a scoreless inning and two strikeouts.

Park's next home game will be on Friday at 2pm on Comfort Field against No. 17 Oklahoma Wesleyan University. WATCH