WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Golden Eagle softball team put forth an exciting rally in their late game, but Clarion was unable to finish the comeback, ultimately falling in both games at the Diamondplex on Monday. They dropped a 10-1 decision to Missouri-St. Louis in the early game before falling 12-9 in extra innings against Shippensburg.
 
Missouri-St. Louis 10, Clarion 1 (5 inn.)
Recap: Clarion was actually the first team on the scoreboard in the early game, with Brooke McCanna lining a single down the left field line in the first inning to score Kathryn O'Horo. That sequence came after O'Horo reached on a one-out walk, followed by a single from Hannah Norton and another drawn walk by Desi Allen that loaded the bases.
 
The Tritons, meanwhile, scored three runs in the home half of the inning to take a 3-1 lead, and tacked on another three in the bottom of the second to up the lead to 6-1. Eventually their lead reached 10-1, leaving the Golden Eagles to play catch-up the rest of the way. Brooke Cline led off the top of the fourth with a perfectly-executed bunt single, but the Golden Eagles were unable to bring around to score. UMSL held their lead through the end of the fifth inning to lock up the win.
 
Shippensburg 12, Clarion 9 (8 inn.)
Recap: The Golden Eagles erased deficits of 5-0 and 9-6 to send the game to extra innings, thanks to some opportunistic hitting. No moment struck more forcefully than the play that sent the game to extras, courtesy of Makenzie Wolfe. With Clarion trailing 9-6 in the home half of the inning, the Golden Eagles found some two-out magic, starting with a hard single to left field by Rachel Helsley. Cline reached thanks to an error at shortstop, giving Wolfe two runners in scoring position. The senior outfielder blasted a no-doubt three-run home run the opposite way, depositing the ball over the right field fence to tie the game at 9.
 
That the Golden Eagles were even in a position to tie it that late was a testament to their resilience. They fell behind 5-0 after the top of the second inning but chipped away in the home half of the inning, and briefly took the lead in the third. Cline got the emotional fire burning with a two-out, two-run triple in the bottom of the second, scoring Helsley and Billie Aguglia to cut the Raiders' lead to 5-2. The real damage came in the third inning as the Golden Eagles sent 10 batters to the plate in a four-run outburst. Hannah Norton scored on a wild pitch, and Beka McClymonds and Helsley drew RBI walks to tie the game at 5-5. Wolfe drove a single through the left side to give Clarion their first lead of the game, plating Aguglia to make it 6-5.
 
The Raiders scored three times in the top of the fourth inning and once in the top of the seventh, giving themselves the lead before Wolfe erased it in the bottom of the seventh. Shippensburg took advantage of a Golden Eagle miscue in the top of the eighth inning to bring three runs across, and the Golden Eagles were unable to even it up a third time.
 
Wolfe finished the game 2-of-4 at the plate with four RBIs and a run scored. Helsley went 4-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, while Cline was 2-for-4 with a run and two RBIs.
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