DUBOIS, Pa. — The Golden Eagle softball team opened conference action with a doubleheader sweep over Edinboro on Sunday afternoon, taking both ends of the twinbill at Heindl Field in exciting fashion.
(Pictured above: Alexis Valencia celebrates after her walkoff hit led to a Golden Eagle win. Photo by Nick Elfvin / Clarion Athletics)
Clarion won the first game 6-5, followed by a dramatic walk-off 10-9 win in nine innings.
Clarion 6, Edinboro 5
What at first looked to be a convincing lead midway through the game turned into a nailbiter in the final inning, as the Golden Eagles held off a late rally from the Fighting Scots in the top of the seventh inning.
With her team leading 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Desi Allen authored what turned out to be one of the pivotal moments of the game.
Alexis Valencia and Emily Buchleitner reached on back-to-back infield singles to lead off the inning, and two batters later Allen crushed a line-drive three-run homer that easily cleared the wall in straight-away center field and bounced into a pavilion well beyond the wall. That blast gave the Golden Eagles a 6-1 lead and reliever Ashley DeWeese made it hold up through the next two innings, holding the Fighting Scots scoreless in the fifth and sixth.
The Golden Eagle defense played their own role in holding onto the lead. After the first two Edinboro batters of the sixth inning reached via walk, Alexis Valencia helped turn a huge double play, tracking down a hard line drive from Stephanie Crick for one out and quickly throwing to second base to nab Addie Maguire. The Fighting Scots loaded the bases with two outs but did not cash in as Lucy Higley flew out to right field.
Edinboro found new life in the top of the seventh, though, scoring four runs on four hits and taking advantage of a Clarion error to put the go-ahead run on the basepaths. Lauren Bush hit a hard shot to second base that allowed Krick and Maura Pasquale to score, cutting the lead to 6-5.
Pitcher Megan Anderson was summoned to get the team out of the jam and she did just that, whiffing Higley on a swinging strikeout to close out the game.
Clarion scored the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the first inning, stringing together three straight singles. Kathryn O’Horo and Allen hit a pair of one-out singles to put runners aboard, and Tori Martrano lined a single to right-center field to bring the first run across.
Rachel Helsley lifted a fly ball to deep center field to score Allen, making it 2-0. Helsley added another RBI in the bottom of the third inning, pulling a single through the left side of the infield to bring O’Horo home from second base.
O’Horo, Allen and Valencia all logged a pair of hits in the game, with O’Horo and Allen also accounting for a pair of runs scored each. Allen finished with three RBIs.
Emma Hipps got the start and the win, throwing 3.1 innings and allowing just one unearned run. DeWeese allowed four runs in 3.1 innings, though only one was earned.
Clarion 10, Edinboro 9 (9 inn.)
The late game was nothing short of thrilling as both sides overcame late deficits to extend the action, including Golden Eagle efforts in both the seventh and eighth innings where anything less would have meant the conclusion of the game.
The final–but by no means the only–hero of the second game was Valencia, who delivered a walk-off opposite-field single in the bottom of the ninth inning. After DeWeese kept the game tied at 9-9 with a scoreless top of the ninth, the Golden Eagles went to work in the home half.
Helsley led off with a double down the left field line to reach scoring position, and Clarion benefitted from an errant throw from the shortstop in Haylie Rimmey’s plate appearance to put runners on second and third with no outs. Edinboro pitcher Jordan Lauer retired the next two batters, but Valencia was up to the task with two outs, lifting a fly ball over the head of the left fielder to score Helsley.
For a good while, it didn’t seem like extra innings would even come into the equation, as the Golden Eagles once again opened up a 6-1 lead.
Annika Smith and O’Horo both hit two-run doubles in the bottom of the second inning to open up a 4-1 lead, and Billie Aguglia lashed a triple to deep left field in the third inning to score Rimmey and Martrano, giving the Golden Eagle side a 6-1 lead.
Edinboro began to push back in the top of the fifth inning, including a two-run homer by Maguire to cut the lead in half. Morgan Spitler and Lauren Bush added RBI doubles to make it 6-5, but a potentially lethal blow came in the top of the seventh inning when Lucy Higley hit a two-out, three-run home run to put the Fighting Scots ahead 8-6.
Rather than wilt, the Golden Eagles blossomed, employing their own two-out magic in the bottom of the seventh to keep it going. With Clarion down to its final out, Tori Martrano kept the game alive with a single, and Helsley scored pinch-runner Lauren Hartman with a double to deep left field. Rimmey followed with an opposite-field double of her own, hitting a ball to shallow right field that took a fortunate carom off the wall to allow Helsley to tie the game at 8-8.
The drama was far from over. Maguire hit her second home run of the game in the top of the eighth inning, blasting a 3-2 pitch over the center field wall with two outs to make it 9-8. This time Clarion was able to tie things up without waiting for two outs, with Allen hitting a sacrifice fly to score Valencia from third.
DeWeese picked up the win with 4.0 innings of relief, allowing four runs but gutting through her second extended outing of the day. Martrano, Helsley and Rimmey each logged two hits, with Helsley going for extra bases in both.
