WPU Closes 2025 with Doubleheader Against Clarke

Oskaloosa--The Statesmen baseball team finished off its campaign with a pair of Heart of America Athletic Conference losses to Clarke Saturday.

William Penn (16-28, 9-23 Heart) lost its final two games of the spring by scores of 5-2 and 5-1.

The Pride tallied the first runs of the opener, including posting two in the second inning and one more in the third.

The hosts answered in the third as Abraham Arroyo (Grad., Camuy, P.R., Master's of Sports Management) singled in Andres Pineda (Jr., Colombia, Secondary Education), while Pineda scored again in the fifth off a single by Bradley Soto (Jr., Davenport, Fla., Business Management) to cut the deficit to one at 3-2.

Unfortunately, CU locked up the victory with two late insurance runs.

The Statesmen were outhit 8-5 with Arroyo guiding the efforts with a hit and a walk.  Joseph Taylor (So., Hemet, Calif., Kinesiology) pitched all seven innings, notching six strikeouts (five walks).

William Penn lost the hits battle 10-4 in the nightcap, and fell behind 4-0 after four frames of play.  The navy and gold finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI one-bagger by Jagger Mitchell (Jr., Rock Springs, Wyo., Business Management) that plated Soto.

That would prove to be the only offense WPU could muster, however, while the Pride tacked on one more run in the seventh.

Arroyo and Hector Dominguez (Jr., Fontana, Calif., Exercise Science) each produced one base knock and one walk in the season finale.

Senior Ryne Chamberlin (Sr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sports Management) was handed the ball and he went the distance, striking out one (no walks) in his seven innings on the bump.

"Our lineup was unable to do much against Clarke's pitching, so hats off to them," Head Coach Mike Laird said.  "Our inability to stay healthy seemed to follow us the entire year, more than any year that comes to mind.  That said, the effort remained constant and we tried to the best of our abilities."