Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CLARION, Pa. – On a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Memorial Field, Clarion finished off their 2014 season losing both games of the doubleheader against IUP.
 
Game one finished 9-3 while Clarion made things interesting late in game two but fell short of a comeback losing 4-2.
 
Game one started off well for the Golden Eagles as they lead 3-1 after two innings of play.
 
Mitch Holmberg started off the second inning rally with a single to right field. Ben Thomas then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Holmberg to second which led to a Joey Lopez single to center field, advancing Holmberg to third. Joe Holmberg then hit a single to left center bringing in his brother Mitch and moving Lopez over to third. With runners on the corners and one out, Josh Ponsoll hit a sacrifice fly out to right field knocking in Lopez and advancing Holmberg to third. Drew Pirritano received Clarion's last RBI of game one with a single to right field that brought Holmberg in to score.
 
But a seven run top of the fourth for the Crimson Hawks gave them an 8-3 lead.  Pitcher Brett Whitman, Clarion's game one starter, had a good start until surrendering all seven runs in the inning.  He worked into the fifth inning but after back-to-back one-out walks, his day was finished.  Whitman completed 4.1 innings giving up 11 hits and eight earned runs.
 
IUP (18-23 overall, 12-16 PSAC West) added one more run in the sixth off of reliever Sam Skraba. Skraba pitched 1.2 innings letting up one hit and one earned run.
 
 Ken DiBucci finished off game one pitching a hitless seventh inning.
 
Kyle Zaorski picked up the win for IUP going five innings and gave up three runs, eight hits, and two walks while recording three strikeouts.
 
Mitch Holmberg (2-for-4), Joe Holmberg (2-for-3), and Pirritano (2-for-4) each finished with two hits apiece for Clarion in the opener.  All ten hits in the game for the Golden Eagles were singles.
 
In Game Two, Clarion took another early lead, 1-0, when Tyler Falk singled to center field scoring Josh Ponsoll who earlier led off the third inning with a single to the shortstop.
 
Starting pitcher Alex Borofski pitched a solid outing but let up two costly home runs. One was a two-run shot by Austin Mock in the top of the fifth that gave IUP a 2-1 lead. IUP's second home run came in the top of the seventh inning from Tyler Mroz. Borofski let up another run later in the inning to enhance the Crimson Hawk lead to 4-1.
 
In the bottom half of the seventh inning, Clarion loaded the bases with two outs but was only able to get one run on a Tyler Falk single to left field that scored Ponsoll.
 
 Borofski pitched a complete game allowing six hits and four earned runs.
 
Falk went 2-for-3 with two RBI's to lead the Golden Eagle offense in the nightcap.  Ponsoll also had two hits as he went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.  Mike Lockhart and Lopez had the other hits for Clarion, both singles.
 
Falk finished the 2014 season batting .363, which is the highest batting average by a freshman in the PSAC West and the highest by a Clarion freshman (minimum 2.4 plate appearances) since Matt Rossi hit .371 in 2008.  The .363 mark from Falk is the sixth highest by a Golden Eagle freshman since 1979.  Tony Petulla (2004), finished with a .444 average to lead the list.   Other categories Falk led the Golden Eagles with are RBI's with 18, hits with 41, and he also finished with a team-high .411 on-base percentage.
 
Clarion finishes off the 2014 season with an 8-30 overall record and 5-23 in PSAC play.
 
Story by Joshua Garrett