Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ERIE, Pa. – Kane McCall tossed another gem to help the Clarion University baseball team to a PSAC West road doubleheader split at Mercyhurst Friday afternoon.
 
McCall, who moved to 3-0 on the season with a 1.89 ERA, went the distance, his second complete game of the year, allowing one earned run on two hits and six walks while striking out three to lift the Golden Eagles (3-7 overall, 1-1 PSAC West) to a 2-1 victory in Game Two of the twinbill.
 
In Game One, Mercyhurst's Dan Altavilla tossed a no hitter in a 3-0 Mercyhurst win.
 
The second game was all about McCall.
 
Clarion's freshman hurler from nearby Rimersburg, Pa., and Union High School, was once again dominant on the mound not allowing a hit until there were two outs in the fifth while finishing with his second two-hitter in three contests.
 
McCall may have been at his best in the last two innings finding a way to stop a pair of Mercyhurst rallies.
 
With Clarion leading 2-0 going to the sixth, McCall allowed the first two runners to reach thanks to a single by Brandon Cox and a walk to Dan Popio. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners up 90 feet before McCall got Giancarlo Saia to hit a ground ball to shortstop Joey Lopez who alertly tossed to third baseman Mitch Holmberg to erase Popio trying to advance to third. Cox scored on the play cutting Clarion's lead in half.
 
But despite the base-running mistake, the Lakers (9-5, 1-1) still had life when McCall hit Hank Morrison putting the tying run back in scoring position.
 
Again, however, the red-shirt freshman McCall was able to induce a groundball to Lopez, this time off the bat of Anthony Tomasone, to end the threat.
 
Then in the seventh, Mercyhurst got the leadoff man, Angel Martinez, on thanks to a leadoff walk. Martinez moved to third on a pair of ground outs before Cox walked and stole second putting the winning run in scoring position.
 
But Martinez tried to steal home, and McCall threw to catcher Ben Thomas who tagged Martinez out ending the game.
 
Clarion got its two runs with small ball.
 
In the first, Holmberg walked with one out, moved to second on a base hit by Derek Danver, who was 2-for-3, and then scored from second on an infield single by Tyler Falk.
 
Danver was in the middle of Clarion's run in the third inning as well.
 
Drew Pirritano got things started by being hit by a pitch, and Holmberg sacrificed him to second before Danver delivered an RBI single to left giving the Golden Eagles a 2-0 lead.
 
In the first game, Altavilla was the story striking out seven while throwing the no-no.
 
Brett Whitman, though, was nearly as good for Clarion getting the tough-luck loss despite not allowing an unearned run. He gave up three unearned runs on five hits and five walks.
 
All three runs came in the fifth inning and were aided by a dropped fly-ball error on Clarion leftfielder Josh Ponsoll that would have been the second out of the inning.
 
Clarion and Mercyhurst will continued their four-game series tomorrow with a doubleheader again in Erie with the Golden Eagles the home team. The games were scheduled to be played in Clarion but poor field conditions forced them to be moved to Erie.
 
NOTES – Going back to last season, Clarion has now won four of its past six PSAC West game … The Golden Eagles didn't pick up their third win last year until the final day of the season, May 4, when they swept Lock Haven in a doubleheader in Clarion.