SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — The Golden Eagle softball team got through all of one game and most of another in a road doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon, but weather forced a stoppage in the second half of their doubleheader with Slippery Rock.
The Rock won the first game 7-6 on a walkoff hit, and Clarion led the second game 7-4 before lightning forced a halting of the game.
The second half of the doubleheader will be resumed at the start of the bottom of the fifth inning, with Clarion leading 7-4, at a date and time to be determined.
Game 1: Slippery Rock 7, Clarion 6
The first game featured three lead changes and a handful of tied scores as both teams traded shots over the course of seven innings. The Golden Eagles struck first, and the led by a 5-3 score in the top of the sixth inning, but the Rock fought back and took a 6-5 lead in the home half of that same inning. Clarion rallied to tie and extend the game but could not keep Slippery Rock off the board in the bottom of the seventh, as the latter got the early win.
Desi Allen and Hannah Powierza accounted for the first two runs of the game, with the latter hitting an opposite field single to score Rachel Helsley and the latter lifting a sacrifice fly to shallow left field. Aubrey Mansfield responded in the bottom of the third by hitting the first of what would be two home runs for the Rock in the early game, tying the score at 2-2. That’s the way it stayed until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Slippery Rock took a 3-2 lead on an RBI single from Mackenzie Freeman.
Clarion put up a big number in the top of the sixth to retake the advantage, scoring three runs to put all the pressure back on the Rock. With the bases loaded and two outs, Alexis Valencia hit a bases-clearing double to drive in three runs and put her team ahead. Julia Nutter hit another big fly for The Rock in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game, and Mansfield hit a single up the middle to give Slippery Rock a 6-5 advantage.
The Golden Eagles had one more trick up their sleeve in the top of the seventh, extending the game but missing out on taking the lead. Emily Buchleitner led off the inning with a double to center field and advanced to third on a wild pitch.
Kathryn O’Horo scored her from there, pulling a single to right to make it 6-6. Clarion loaded the bases again with two outs, but Powierza grounded out to end the threat. Slippery Rock loaded the bases themselves in the bottom of the seventh and cashed in for the win, when Arielle Brown was hit by a pitch to bring home Emma Kennedy.
Valencia and Helsley each recorded a pair of hits, with the former driving in three runs. Helsley, meanwhile, went 2-for-2 with two runs scored and a walk.
Emma Hipps struck out five batters in 5.1 innings pitched.
Game 2: Clarion 7, Slippery Rock 4 (Halted in Bottom 5)
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a significant lead in the second game of the day, with Helsley continuing her red-hot run at the plate with her third home run of the week.
Emily Buchleitner was hit by a pitch and O’Horo hit a single to put two runners on, and Helsley made the Rock pay with a three-run opposite field home run on a 2-1 pitch from starter Kelsi Anderson.
Clarion tacked onto that lead in the top of the second inning, with an error at third base enabling Buchleitner to score from second base and increase the lead to 4-0. Helsley struck again in the top of the fourth inning, this time clearing the bases loaded with a three-run double to the gap in left-center field.
That extra-base hit gave the Golden Eagles a 7-1 lead, but Slippery Rock got three of those runs back in the home half of the fourth to cut the advantage down to 7-4.
Tori Martrano helped to keep that lead from getting any larger, though, turning an unassisted double play at third base with the bases loaded and no outs. She knocked down a hard grounder from Julia Montie and stepped on third base for one out and astutely made a quick throw home to get Brown out in a force at home. Pitcher Ashley DeWeese then induced a grounder from Freeman for the third out.
The Golden Eagles had a chance to increase the lead in the top of the fifth inning on Annika Smith’s hard grounder through the middle, but Slippery Rock made a key defensive play to get Desi Allen at home to end the inning.
That was when Mother Nature decided to intervene.
Lightning in the area forced the halting of the game at that point.
