Park University's softball program had the privilege of honoring four seniors before the doubleheader with Clarke University at the Park Softball Complex on Saturday with both teams earning a win on the day for the split, 2-4 and 4-1.

The Pirates are No. 9 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference standings with six games to go. The Pirates sit at 16-18 on the season and 6-12 in the Heart, while the Pride are 17-19 and 5-13 of the same.

Park honored four seniors before the games, including No. 34 Macalee Tolbert, No. 18 Brooke Conner, No. 9 Dakota Rau, and No. 13 Kal Day.
 
GAME 1 | L, 2-4 | Box Score

Halle Magee got the Pirates off to a great start with a solo home run to left center to give Park a 1-0 lead.

Park senior pitcher Rau was in the circle to face the Pride and threw two shutout innings to begin the afternoon.

The Pride broke through in the top of the third inning with two runs on two extra base-hits to give Clarke a 2-1 lead.

Rau hung in tough to finish out her complete game, the 11^th of her five-year career, but the Pride after getting shutout in the fourth and fifth innings, came back with another two run spot in the sixth brought on by an unfortunate error with the bases loaded to extend the inning. One run scored on the error and a single brought in an additional run for the 4-1 lead.

Magee doubled to left center to begin the sixth as she was three-for-three on the day and was one triple away from The Cycle. Nia Muniz later would lineout to the outfield for a sacrifice fly to bring in Magee. That would be the final run of the game though, as the Pirates fell in game one, 4-2.

GAME 2 | W, 4-1 | Box Score

The Pirates had a clean game in the field in game two and behind the pitching of Lauren Fiene, the Pirates handled the Pride in game two.

A big jolt of offense again came in the first inning for the Pirates. This time, another senior Day hit a two-run blast to give Park a 2-0 lead.

Fiene would throw two scoreless innings before Clarke was able to scratch across one run in the third inning, three of their runs of the doubleheader came in the top of the third.

Park immediately answered with a nice triple to begin the third inning from Caroline Riffer. After a Shelby Sanders walk, Sanders baited the Pride with a steal of second base and Riffer took off to score on the throw down to second by the Pride, both runners were safe on the play. Muniz got her second RBI of the day with a single up the middle to score Sanders and the Pirates got to their biggest lead of the day, 4-1.

Fiene only allowed two hits in the contest with three strikeouts and two walks. She improves her record to 7-8 on the season with nine complete games in 2024, she now has 19 complete games in her two seasons at Park.

Mount Mercy University will come to the Park Softball Complex on Sunday for a Strikeout Cancer Day with the doubleheader beginning at 1pm. WATCH