CLARION, Pa. — The Golden Eagle baseball team followed up a high-scoring loss with a low-scoring walkoff win on Tuesday, splitting a non-conference doubleheader with Bloomsburg at Memorial Stadium.
(Pictured: Alfredo Hurtado celebrates his walk-off RBI to win the second game against Bloomsburg)
Clarion dropped the first game by a 10-6 score before coming back for a 2-1 win in the late game, with the victory coming on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Alfredo Hurtado.
Game 1: Bloomsburg 10, Clarion 6
The Huskies put up a slew of runs in the early innings of the first game, scoring eight of their 10 runs in the second through fourth innings.
Shawn Karpaitis drove in three of those runs, including a two-run double in the third inning to make it 5-0, and an RBI single in the fourth to up the lead to seven runs.
The Golden Eagles were not content to go down without a fight, though, starting with a three-run sixth inning that got things moving. Clarion loaded the bases with one out in the inning, with Kasey Shughart drawing a walk and Nate Petke hit by a pitch.
Daren Byers singled to load the bags and Brycen Dinkfelt followed with an RBI single to center. Petke came around to score on a wild pitch and Ethan Giangiulio brought Byers home, hitting a grounder to second base to make it 9-3.
The Huskies got one of those runs back in the seventh inning, but Clarion followed up with another offensive outburst to keep things interesting.
Scotty McManamon lined a double to left field to score Tyler Meachum, who earlier reached on a one-out infield single. Byers smacked an RBI single to center field to score McManamon and Shughart—who drew a one-out walk—eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-6.
McManamon finished 3-for-4 at the plate with a run and an RBI, while Byers also went 3-for-4 with a run scored and another driven in.
Game 2: Clarion 2, Bloomsburg 1
The second game of the day featured 16 combined hits—including 10 for the Golden Eagles—but just three runs between the teams.
Logan Schlegel allowed just one run in 1.2 innings of action as the starter, and the duo of Giangiulio and Ryan Gallagher combined for 5.1 innings of shutout three-hit ball.
Bloomsburg led the game 1-0 after the top of the second inning, with Ryan Flury hitting an RBI single to left field to bring home Owen Wilhide. Only one Husky batter reached scoring position the rest of the way, when Jeremy Cawley stole second and advanced to third on an error.
The Golden Eagles broke through in the bottom of the fourth inning, starting with Hurtado’s one-out double to left field to put himself in scoring position.
Steve Scarfone hit a double to left but Hurtado had to hold up at third base, putting runners on second and third with one out. McManamon got the job done in the next at-bat, lifting a fly ball to deep center field for a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Hurtado had a part to play in the eventual win as well, coming through in the clutch with a sac fly of his own.
Daren Byers drew a walk to lead off the inning and Caden Contant followed up with a single through the left side, putting runners on first and second. A well-executed double steal moved their pair into scoring position, and two batters later Hurtado hit a fly ball to center field to score Byers and clinch the 2-1 win.
Contant went 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, while Scarfone finished the game 3-for-3.
