GLENVILLE, WV - Heading to Glenville, West Virginia for day one of the PSAC / Mountain East Challenge, the Clarion baseball team picked up their first win of the season and the first of head coach Doc Neiman's career, defeating Concord 7-6 on Friday afternoon.

Like they have all season long, the Clarion offense struck in the early innings. The Golden Eagles picked up one run in the top of the first inning after an Alex Ficorilli single scored Matt Privette who led the inning off with a double.

Concord answered though with a run of their own in the bottom frame of the inning, scoring one run on a sac-fly to left field that scored Andrew Stehlin who reached on an error to start the inning.

Tied at one a piece the Golden Eagle bats exploded in the top of the second inning scoring five runs on four hits. The inning started with a Will Constantin single, then a Ben Barth single through the right side. After a Cole Shaffer walk the bases were loaded for Privette who singled scoring Constantin and Barth making the score 3-1.

Chandler Palyas cleared the bases for Clarion in the very next at bat hitting a three run bomb, his first of the season, deep over the right field wall and scoreboard making the score 6-1.

With Clarion holding a commanding five run lead, Concord scored two runs in the bottom of the second on a Jake Adkins single and a bases loaded hit by pitch, cutting the Golden Eagle lead to three.

The score remained a 6-3 ballgame in favor of the Blue and Gold until the top of the fifth inning when Clarion tacked on one insurance run. Dan Fox singled through the left side scoring Ficorilli who reached on an error earlier in the inning.

The Mountain Lions would battle in the late innings, picking up three runs in the bottom of the sixth to put them within striking distance down one at 7-6.

Bryan Layton slammed the door on the Concord attack though starting in the seventh inning, striking out the side. From then on Layton struck out the next three of the eight batters that he faced, almost single handedly taking the sails out of the Mountain Lion attack,

Bryce Grenet tallied the win for the Golden Eagles, tossing six innings of six run baseball, striking out three and walking just two.

Layton tossed three innings of scoreless baseball striking out six and allowing two hits.  

Palyas and Privette paced the Golden Eagle offense with Palyas racking up three RBI's on two hits, while Privette picked up two RBI's on two hits.

Clarion will be back in action tomorrow in day two of the PSAC / Mountain East Challenge when they take on Wheeling at 3:30 at the Sue Morris Sports Complex.