CLARION, Pa. – The Golden Eagle softball team feted their seniors in grand fashion on Saturday afternoon, sweeping both ends of a doubleheader against Slippery Rock.
Clarion (10-16, 6-14 PSAC West) rallied in both games, erasing a sixth-inning deficit in the first game to win 11-10 in nine innings and coming back from trailing 7-0 to win the nightcap 10-7.
Each comeback featured their share of fireworks, as both teams rode an emotional rollercoaster through 16 total innings. The first game saw the teams trading leads through the early and middle innings, with Clarion leading 5-2 at one point and the Rock holding a 9-8 edge in the bottom of the sixth inning. Those stressful moments were surpassed only by the back and forth of extra innings, with the Golden Eagles and the Rock trading runs in the eighth inning to push for a ninth frame before Clarion got the win.
The Golden Eagles tied the game at 9-9 in the bottom of the sixth inning when Rebecca Kelley lined a two-out RBI triple to right center field, scoring Hannah Norton. Neither team tallied a run in the seventh inning, and Slippery Rock took advantage of the international tiebreaker rule by striking first in the eighth. Leah Vith scored Erin Gardner on a sac fly to put The Rock ahead 10-9, but Makenzie Wolfe responded with an RBI triple to score Megan Anderson and knot it up again. After Megan Anderson (2-5) posted a clean sheet in the top of the ninth, Jessica Cartia posted the knockout punch, driving in Brooke Cline on a sac fly for the 11-10 victory.
Kelley had a monster game at the plate, going 2-for-5 with a triple, a home run and five RBIs. The homer came in the bottom of the fourth inning, cutting Slippery Rock’s lead to 9-8. Her RBI triple tied the game at 9-9. Alyssa Stitt went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored, while Wolfe went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and one run scored. Anderson was the pitcher of record for the Golden Eagles, throwing 5.1 innings of relief and allowing just two hits and one run.
If the first game was a back-and-forth battle, the second game comeback could only be described as improbable. Slippery Rock leaped out to a 7-0 lead after three innings, chasing starter Zoe Ott in the first inning. Laura Sadowski (3-2) came in and kept the Golden Eagles in the game, throwing seven innings and at one point retiring 12 straight batters. She was charged with three runs.
It seemed as if the Rock were going to walk to a blowout win, but the Golden Eagles sent 11 batters to the plate in the fourth in a wild blizzard of runs. Wolfe and Cline rapped back-to-back RBI singles to make it 7-2, and Kelley cleared the bases with a triple to deep center field to cut Slippery Rock’s lead to 7-5. Cartia brought Kelley in to score on an error in right field, and Alexandra Brentzel tied the game at 7-7 with an RBI triple to right center. The coup de grace came with Tori Martrano at the plate, when Brentzel scored on a passed ball to give the Golden Eagles an 8-7 lead.
Clarion added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, with Cline and Norton driving in a pair to put the Golden Eagles up 10-7. Sadowski took complete control in the circle, not allowing a baserunner from the end of the third inning until there were two outs in the seventh. The Rock put Maggie Moore and Alexa Guglielmino on base with consecutive hits in the seventh, but Sadowski induced a popout to close out the win.
Submitted by Sean Fagan, Sports Information Director, Clarion University
