SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- The Golden Eagle softball team dropped a pair of one-run losses on the road on Thursday, falling by scores of 2-1 and 8-7 to Slippery Rock in PSAC West action. The latter result came in extra innings, after the Golden Eagles rallied from a 6-3 deficit.
Game 1: Slippery Rock 2, Clarion 1
Recap: The game was a pitcher's duel between the Golden Eagles' Kendyl Switzer and The Rock's Kelsi Anderson, with all the game's scoring coming in the first three innings. Slippery Rock struck first, scoring runs in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Emma Kennedy and an RBI doubles Cami Fisk. Switzer put up nothing but zeroes from that point forward, holding the Rock to just two hits over their final five offensive innings.
Clarion, conversely, touched Anderson up for seven hits, but could only manage one run. That came in the top of the third inning, after Chelsea Liroff led off the frame with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Allison Gilliam scored her with a one-out groundout to the shortstop, getting enough on her hit up the middle to allow Liroff to score. The Golden Eagles got the tying run to third base in the fourth inning, after Brooke Cline reached on a fielder's choice and advanced, but Makenzie Wolfe struck out to end the threat.
\Wolfe got something going in the top of the seventh inning, whacking a single and then taking second on an error. But the Golden Eagles could not bring her home as Anderson locked up the win.
Game 2: Slippery Rock 8, Clarion 7 (8)
Recap: Compared to the first game, there was a bevy of offensive fireworks in the nightcap between the Golden Eagles and the Rock. Hannah Norton got things going with an RBI single in the top of the first inning, scoring Rachel Helsley, and the senior corner infielder drove in her second run of the afternoon with a sacrifice fly that made it a 3-2 lead for Clarion in the top of the second. That run followed an RBI single by Wolfe that plated Desi Allen.
Slippery Rock exploded for four runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 6-3 lead, but the Golden Eagles enjoyed a similar outburst in the fourth inning to retake the lead. Rachel Helsley and Allison Gilliam both crushed home runs to left field – Helsley a solo shot, and Gilliam a three-run blast that scored Norton and Wolfe – to put the Golden Eagles ahead 7-6. There the score remained until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Mackenzie Freeman drove in Alexsa Hurd on a grounder to short to tie it up. Hurd drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning as well, hitting a single to left to bring home Anna Villies.
Wolfe went 3-for-4 in the nightcap with an RBI and a run scored, while Gilliam finished 1-for-3 with three RBIs. Helsley went 2-for-4.
