SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Golden Eagle softball team split a pair of games with Slippery Rock on Friday afternoon, dropping the first contest 8-0 in six innings before routing The Rock 8-4 in the late game. Clarion (8-16, 6-14 PSAC West) snapped a six-game losing streak in the process.
 
The win marked the first time Clarion has reached eight victories in a season since the 2012 season. With their sixth win of the year in conference play, the Golden Eagles have their highest divisional win total since winning eight games during the 2004 season.
 
The Golden Eagles showed resilience in earning the split with The Rock, building a sizable lead and holding off a Slippery Rock rally to put a checkmark in the win column. Hannah Norton led the way by going 2-of-3 with a double and her second home run of the season, driving in three runs and scoring a pair in the process. Alexandra Brentzel and Tori Martrano also notched a pair of hits, with Brentzel hitting a pair of RBI doubles.
 
The offense supported a good showing from Laura Sadowski (2-2) in the pitching circle. The senior tossed her third complete game of the season, allowing 11 hits but holding the Rock to just four runs over the course of those seven innings. Sadowski worked herself out of a couple of jams, including situations with runners on first and second in each of the first three innings.
 
That bought the Clarion bats enough time to wake up, and wake up they did in the top of the fourth inning. Makenzie Wolfe reached on a six-pitch walk with one out, and Norton drove her home with a two-run blast over the left field wall for the Golden Eagles' first runs of the day. Brentzel tacked on with a two-out double down the left field line to score Jessica Cartia and Rebecca Kelley, making it a 4-0 lead for Clarion. That advantage reached 6-0 in the top of the fifth during what turned out to be another wild inning. Rock pitcher Claire Zimmerman quickly retired the first two batters of the inning before running into trouble, starting with a single by Wolfe that the latter turned into a double on a throwing error. Wolfe took third on a wild pitch and came home on Norton's opposite-field double, making it 5-0.
 
The figurative hits kept on coming when Zimmerman hit Kelley with a pitch, and Cartia reached on a fielder's choice that saw the Golden Eagles load the bases for Sadowski. The pitcher helped her own cause, driving a 2-1 pitch into center field for an RBI single to make it 6-0.
 
Slippery Rock cut into the lead in each of the next two innings, scoring three runs off Sadowski in the sixth. Brentzel plated an insurance run with her double to left center, scoring Carissa Giordano, and Sadowski shook off a leadoff home run by Leah Vith in the bottom of the seventh inning to preserve the win.
 
Conversely, the Rock dominated the proceedings in the first game, holding the Golden Eagles to a lone hit while touching up Kendyl Switzer (1-3) for six tallies in 4.0 innings pitched. Starter Kelsi Anderson allowed just four baserunners in the first game, including Brooke Cline's two-out single in the top of the first inning.