CLARION, Pa. – The Golden Eagle softball team earned a doubleheader split in their home opener / Senior Day on Friday, falling to Slippery Rock by a 13-3 score in the first game before winning a 5-4 extra inning victory over the Rock in the nightcap.
 
In the process, senior outfielder Makenzie Wolfe broke the program record for runs scored, scoring one run apiece in the first and second games of the day. Wolfe broke her tie with Rebecca Lynch, who scored 56 runs between 2009-12. She now has 58 total runs scored in her career.
 
Game 1 - Slippery Rock 13, Clarion 3 (6 inn.)
Recap: The teams traded runs back and forth through the middle innings of action, but an eight-run outburst for the Rock in the sixth inning locked up the shortened outing in the first half of the doubleheader. Slippery Rock took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by Erin Gardner and a sacrifice fly by Arielle Brown.
 
The Golden Eagles got one of those runs back in the fourth, when Wolfe and Hannah Norton both reached to lead off the inning. Allison Gilliam hit a long single to right field to advance the runners, and Wolfe eventually scored on an error by the Rock with two outs. Alyssa Stitt grounded out to the pitcher Kelsie Anderson, but a wild throw from first to third allowed Wolfe to come around to score.
 
Alexsa Hurd and Mackenzie Freeman added RBI hits in the fifth inning, followed by a solo home run from Emma Kennedy to put the Rock ahead 5-1. Norton cut that lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run single that scored Brooke Cline and Chelsea Liroff, but the eight-run eruption by the Rock quashed the Golden Eagles' chances of completing the comeback.
 
Game 2 – Clarion 5, Slippery Rock 4 (8 inn.)
Recap: The Golden Eagles strung together four straight hits in the bottom of the first inning to build a 3-0 lead, including an RBI double from Norton and back-to-back run-scoring singles from Gilliam and Brooke McCanna, but it was the defense in the top of the inning that kept the Rock at bay. After Gardner and Brown led off the inning with back-to-back singles, the Golden Eagles kept them from scoring with two standout defensive plays. Tori Martrano pulled in a hot shot at third base and threw home to retire Gardner from third base, and McCanna threw out Freeman as the latter attempted to take second on a ball in the dirt, ending the inning.
 
Cami Fisk tied the score at 3-3 in the top of the fourth inning with a three-run home run, but Clarion re-took the lead with a small ball approach in the bottom of the inning. Carissa Giordano was hit by a pitch to lead things off, and Brooke Cline drew a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. A wild pitch allowed the pair to advance, and Rachel Helsley lifted a ball to left for a sac fly to score Giordano. The Rock tied it up in the top of the seventh, but relief pitcher Kendyl Switzer struck out Cami Fisk and Julia Montie to end the threat, and then shut out the Rock in the top of the eighth to keep her team in it.
 
Norton led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to deep left center, and was lifted for the pinch runner Alyssa Stitt. Stitt advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Gilliam and McCanna did the rest, dropping a single into left field for the game-winning run.
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