BUTLER, Pa. – The Clarion baseball team suffered a run of bad luck on Saturday, with two big innings making the difference as they fell by scores of 7-1 and 5-2 to IUP at Kelly Automotive Park.  The Golden Eagles (7-14, 3-7 PSAC West) and the Crimson Hawks will meet in a doubleheader in Indiana tomorrow.
 
Indeed, the final scores of the two games were not necessarily indicative of how close the competitions actually were, as the fates of both games were decided by one big offensive inning by the Crimson Hawks.  IUP scored four runs in the top of the second inning in the first game to take a 4-1 lead but were otherwise held in check by starting pitcher Kane McCall.  In the second game, the Crimson Hawks scored four runs in the third inning, but again were mostly neutralized at the plate.
 
Mitch Holmberg went 2-for-5 at the dish over the two games with a home run and two total runs scored.  He led off the first game with a solo shot over the left field wall, crushing an offering from Jeff Allen to put Clarion ahead 1-0.  It came on the heels of a hot start by McCall, who whiffed the first three Crimson Hawks of the game on just 14 pitches.
 
However, McCall labored through the second inning, allowing four runs after recording the first two outs on an unassisted double play by Joey Lopez.  Two late-game rally attempts by Clarion were quashed by the double play, as well, with Tom Connell grounding into one to end the fourth inning and Austin Mike doing so in the seventh inning.  Tiler Sadowski pitched two innings of relief, allowing an inherited runner to score but otherwise shutting down the Crimson Hawks.
 
The four-run third inning made the difference in the second game, with the Golden Eagles coming close but falling just short of rallying back.  Lopez scored Holmberg on a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to score Clarion's first run, and John Finke drove in Tyler Falk with a flare to right field to cut it to 5-2.  Mike represented the tying run at the plate with two outs, but he fanned on a pitch by Dillon Swanger to end the threat.  Swanger threw two more scoreless innings to end the game.