Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CLARION, Pa. – Rebecca Lynch's big day helped the Clarion University softball team split a non-conference doubleheader with visiting Salem International Monday at Memorial Field.
 
Lynch went 5-for-7 in the doubleheader with three runs scored and two RBIs. Her two-run, first-inning home run in Game One helped pave the way to a 6-3 victory for the Golden Eagles, who lost a heartbreaker in Game Two, 7-6.
 
Behind Lynch's two-run shot in Game One, Clarion (8-22) build a 4-0 lead after three innings and a 6-1 lead after five before Salem International platted a pair of runs in the sixth.
 
Lynch's homer, her third in six days and the fourth of her career, gave Clarion an early 2-0 lead, and an RBI double by Kacie Nemeth followed by a run-producing single by Kirsten Wilcox in the third inning built the 4-0 lead. Then, after Salem International scored in the fifth, Nemeth and Taylor Powell delivered run-scoring singles to provide insurance runs in the bottom of the inning.
 
Lynch was right in the middle of all the action going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs, while Nemeth was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored. Wilcox was also 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Taylor Sherry scored two runs. Clarion had 10 hits in the game.
 
Chelsea Zola got the win going 5 1/3 innings allowing three earned runs on six hits and two walks while striking out two. Julie Sokol picked up the save getting two big outs in the sixth. Sokol pitched 1 2/3 innings striking out two.
 
In Game Two, Clarion raced out to a 4-0 lead with four runs in the bottom of the first with Taylor Powell delivering a two-out, two-run single. Nemeth also had an RBI when she reached on an error. Amanda Gough got the inning started with a double.
 
The four runs looked like they would hold up even after Salem cut the lead in half with a pair of runs in the fourth. But the Tigers scored five times in the sixth inning with all the runs being unearned against Sokol to take a 7-4 lead.
 
Clarion fought back scoring once in the sixth when Kelly Peterson tripled with one out and scored on a Powell single before scoring again with two outs in the seventh when Sherry singled and Nemeth drove her home with a wind-aided triple down the right-field line. But Peterson struck out to end the game.
 
Gough and Lynch were each 2-for-4 with runs scored in Game Two, while Powell was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
 
Sokol took the loss going 5 2/3 innings and allowing seven runs, just two earned, on nine hits while striking out three. Megan Daley finished off throwing the final 1 1/3 innings allowing one hit.
 
Clarion returns to action with a 2:30 p.m. home non-conference doubleheader with Slippery Rock Tuesday.
 
NOTES – Lynch has four career home runs now tying her with Leslie Schattauer for the fifth most home runs by a Golden Eagle since 1993 … With hits in both games, Lynch has now hit safely in six straight and in nine of her last 10 games. She is now hitting a team-leading .352 and is tied with Taylor Sherry for the team lead with three home runs. She is also second to Sherry with 17 RBIs … The game was the first of three Breast Cancer Awareness contests this week for the Golden Eagles, who also host Mansfield Friday. The team is selling t-shirts and raffle tickets to raise money for The Cancer Center at Clarion Hospital. T-shirts are one for $12 and two for $20 while raffle tickets for a Vera Bradley duffle bag and assorted gift cards are one for $1 and an arm length for $5. Both t-shirts and raffle tickets will be sold at the remaining Breast Cancer Awareness games this week as well as my contacting head coach Shintrika Hudson at 814-393-2118 or shudson@clarion.edu.