PAINESVILLE, Ohio – The Clarion softball team scored four runs in extra innings to take a Game 1 win, and the Golden Eagles earned a split with the Lake Erie College Storm at Diamond Nine on Sunday.  The Golden Eagles won the first game 12-9 in extra innings but fell in the second by a 6-0 score.  With the split, Clarion improves to 4-28 overall on the season.
 
Casey Wilcox went 4-of-5 with two home runs, five RBIs and four runs scored in the early game against the storm, including a three-run bomb in the top of the ninth inning that would be the dagger against the Storm in Game 1.  Paige Baker went 5-of-8 at the dish in two games, including a 3-of-5 performance in Game 1 and a 2-of-3 mark in Game 2.  Taylor Nonnenberg also went yard for the second day in a row, hitting a three-run homer in the second inning of Game 1.
 
Kira Smith pitched four innings of relief in Game 1 for the win, allowing just one earned run in the victory.  Sarah Gossard took the hard-luck loss in Game 2, allowing two runs – one earned – in two innings of work.
 
Clarion took a big lead in Game 1 with a five-run second inning, starting with Autumn Babcock's sacrifice fly to score Baker.  Cassie Daniels made it 2-0 with a bunt single to advance Rachel Hoffman to third and score Wilcox, and Nonnenberg brought them all home with a clout to right-center to make it a 5-0 advantage.
 
Wilcox added her first home run of the day in the top of the third, scoring Christina Tressler and making it 7-0, but Lake Erie stormed back and ultimately tied the score at 8-8 with a five-run outburst in the home half of the seventh.  Neither team put a run across in the eighth inning but the Golden Eagles took the lead in the ninth.  Nonnenberg started the inning on second base via the international tiebreaker rule and was scored on a one-out single by Tressler to make it 9-8. 
 
Baker singled through the pitcher's circle to put runners on first and third and Wilcox crushed her second homer of the day, slamming one to right center to put Clarion ahead 12-8.  The Storm got one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning but couldn't complete the comeback.
 
The Storm was much more effective in pitching in the second game, holding the Golden Eagles to just three hits and no runs.  Nonnenberg was the only Clarion player to get into scoring position, doing so in the fourth, but they could not bring her home.