Park University's softball program played a pair of games against Mount Mercy on Sunday at the Park Softball Complex for Strikeout Cancer Day. The Mustangs were able to outlast Park in game one for an eight-inning win 5-4 and again in game two for a 5-2 win.

The Pirates had a pregame ceremony for cancer awareness and each player had a "Who I Play For…" sign to honor someone affected by cancer. Park also collected donations for Jill's Hope, an organization committed to support those with any type of cancer diagnosis.

The Pirates move to 16-20 on the season with a 6-14 Heart of America Athletic Conference record, while the Mustangs are 23-19 and 11-9 now of the same. Mount Mercy will be hosting the 2024 Heart Softball Championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and are currently the No. 7 seed. The Pirates are on the outside looking in as the No. 10 seed with four games remaining.

GAME 1 | L, 4-5 | Box Score

The Mustangs got a two-run lead in the second inning on three hits.

Dakota Rau pitched five innings and kept the Pirates in it for the majority of the game with four shutout innings.

The Pirates were shutout in the first five innings of play and the Mustangs put the pressure on again with another two-run sixth inning.

Abbie Farmer came in for the Pirates and kept the deficit at 4-0 in the sixth inning. Rau finished her day in the sixth inning with four strikeouts and three earned runs to her credit.

The sixth inning is when the Pirates came up with their runs and made a big rally to tie, 4-4. Park had five hits in the inning, which got started by a lead-off base-hit by Chloe Gilbert. Brooke Conner kept the inning going with a single to leftfield and then Emma James worked a walk to get the top of the order up with the bases loaded. Caroline Riffer singled up the middle to get a run on the board for the Pirates. Mount Mercy got a second out on a sacrifice fly from Halle Magee to make it 4-2, but Kal Day came through with a two-out double to tie the game 4-4.

Farmer would hold the Mustangs down in the seventh inning, but Mount Mercy came up with a run in the eighth inning for the extra innings win, 5-4.

Riffer, Magee, and Conner each had multi-hit games.

GAME 2 | L, 2-5 | Box Score

The score was scoreless through the first two innings of play in game two. Lauren Fiene pitched two hitless innings to begin the game and the Mustangs got their first hit in the third inning with a solo home run for the 1-0 lead.

The Pirates responded in the bottom half of the inning with a lead-off single from Miranda LuMunyon, which set up Day for another clutch double to tie the game 1-1.

In the fourth inning, Park benefited from two, two-out errors that gave them the 2-1 lead.

Fiene pitched strong through the fifth inning, but ran into trouble in the sixth inning as two hits and an error gave the Mustangs a 3-2 lead.

Fiene lasted 5.2 innings on five hits, four walks, and two strikeouts. Nia Muniz came in to relieve her teammate in the sixth inning.

The Mustangs added another two runs to their total in the seventh and were able to hold Park in the bottom of the seventh, 5-2.

 Mount Mercy had two errors in the field, but held Park to four hits, while having eight hits of their own.

Park has their doubleheader with Missouri Valley College moved up to Wednesday, April 24 at 2pm and 4pm at the Park Softball Complex. WATCH