Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Despite strong pitching performances by Shawnna Crago and Paige Baker and multiple-hit afternoons from Christina Tressler, Baker and Kirsten Wilcox the Clarion University softball team was swept in its PSAC West opener at Slippery Rock Tuesday.
 
The Golden Eagles (1-8 overall, 0-2 PSAC West) dropped Game One 4-3 when Slippery Rock (7-10, 3-1) scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to overcome a 1-0 deficit heading into the inning, and in Game Two, The Rock scored three early runs on its way to a 3-1 victory.
 
Crago took the loss in Game One despite not allowing a run until the sixth. In 5 2/3 innings of work, she gave up four runs, two earned, on four hits and six walks while striking out three.
 
Tressler had a pair of hits in the game going 2-for-4 with an RBI.
 
In the second game, Baker, a freshman, had easily her best performance of the season giving up three runs, just one earned, on five hits and a walk in five innings of work. She struck out four.
 
Clarion looked like it would squeak out a 1-0 win in Game One before things fell apart in the sixth.
 
Leading 1-0 thanks to a one-out RBI single to right in the third by Tressler that scored Ashley Barenchik, who started the inning with a leadoff walk, Crago got in trouble in the sixth when she walked the leadoff hitter.
 
After a bunt moved the runner to second, McKenzie Popatak tied the game with a single. An out later, Katie Kaiser gave Slippery Rock the lead on a base hit to right, and then Taylor Welch reached on an error, and back-to-back walks scored a third run and drove Crago from the game.
 
Chelsea Zola relieved, and after giving up a bunt single to Eliza Sykes that made it 4-1, got out of the jam.
 
Clarion rallied in the seventh picking up a pair of runs before leaving the tying run stranded at third. A two-run single by Casey Wilcox scored Baker, who had walked with two outs to start the rally, and pinch runner Kayla Henderson, who was running for Tressler, who had singled. Taylor Powell, who had also walked, moved to third on the play, but Elizabeth Shiring popped out to shortstop ending the game.
 
In the second game, Slippery Rock took a 1-0 lead in the second on a Kaiser double then scored two unearned runs on a Poatak single in the third.
 
Clarion got its run, unearned, in the fourth when Henderson reached on an error and scored on a Powell groundout.
 
Baker was 1-for-2 in both games for Clarion, while Kirsten Wilcox was 2-for-4 in the first game.
 
The Golden Eagles return to action at 3 p.m. Wednesday when they play their home opener, a PSAC West contest, against Mercyhurst.