BUTLER, Pa. – Playing at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park for the first time this season, the Clarion baseball team managed to split a home doubleheader, falling to Gannon 7-1 in the early game before winning 8-3 in the nightcap. The Golden Eagles, now 12-15 overall and 3-5 in the PSAC West will be back in action tomorrow when they travel to Showers Field to take on Penn State Dubois in a single nine inning game.
Throwing in his first game at Pullman Park,
Jeremy Frazier (1-2) powered Clarion to a win in Game 2 with five innings of two-hit baseball against Gannon. Walking just three and striking out one, Frazier kept the Golden Knights off balance all afternoon helping Clarion preserve the bullpen with the five solid innings.
Dereck Pritchard finished the game out for Frazier throwing two innings of three hit baseball, striking out four and walking none. Pritchard picked up his first save of the season with the appearance.
Gannon got on the scoreboard first in game two scoring in the top of the first inning thanks to a pari of back to back errors that allowed the Golden Knights to advance around the bases and pick up the unearned run when Eli Quiceno singled to score Ian Steighner.
Clarion answered back with two runs in bottom of the first when
Chandler Palyas reached on a bunt single and
Alex Ficorilli singled to right field to put two runners on. After
Thomas Lavin hit into a double play,
Bryce Jackson walked,
Nick Fugh was hit by a pitch and
Tim Irons walked to score Ficorili. After
Cole Shaffer was hit by a pitch in the next at bat Clarion scored one more making the score 2-1 ending the day for the Gannon starter Eric Sapp before he could close the first frame.
The score would remain 2-1 until the top of the third inning when a Gannon single and an error allowed one to score tying the game at two all. The Golden Eagles capitalized with two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning after Shaffer started the inning off with a single,
Dan Janoson followed that up with a single of his own and a sacrifice bunt from
Ben Barth advanced both runners into scoring position. The next at bat Palyas doubled to left field scoring Shaffer. After two more walks Clarion pushed one more across the plate to make the score 4-2.
Gannon would score one more run in the top of the fifth but again the Blue and Gold would answer with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. After Shaffer walked and Barth was hit by a pitch, Palyas launched a bomb over the right center field fence for his second homerun of the early season, pushing the Clarion lead to 7-3.
It was all Clarion from that point on taking all the momentum out of the stadium and putting the game out of reach from the Golden Knights. Clarion would push one more run across in the bottom of the sixth inning after Fugh tripled and scored on a wild pitch making the score its final mark of 8-3.
In the early game,
Kyler Mellott (2-3) took the loss, tossing five complete innings, striking out eight Golden Knight batters and walking just four. Gannon took the lead in the top of the second inning when Trey Zeroski flied out to center field scoring Jared Beach who led the inning off with a double to center field.
The Golden Eagles pulled back even at one in the bottom of the second inning when
Brian Casper was hit by a pitch and Fugh doubled. After Casper was picked off in a run-down Fugh advanced to third and scored on a passed ball.
Gannon scored three in the top of the third inning making the score 4-1 and continued to build their lead from there. They scored one run in the top half of the fifth inning and two more runs in the top of the sixth pushing their lead to the final score of 7-1.
Fugh paced the offense for the Blue and Gold in game one going two for three scoring Clarion's lone run.
