AIKEN, S.C. --- The Golden Eagles softball team opened their season with a win for the first time in more than a decade, as Clarion settled for a doubleheader split with USC Aiken on Friday. Clarion won the first game 13-4 in five innings before falling 4-2 in the second half of the twinbill.
 
Game 1: Clarion 13, USC Aiken 4 (5 inn.)
Recap: The game turned on a colossal offensive output in the top of the third inning, with the Golden Eagles going off for 11 runs on five hits. Clarion sent 16 batters to the plate in the marathon inning, chasing starting pitcher Rebekah Cook and hanging another four runs on Marlena Perez before the latter could record an out.
 
Leading 2-0 after two innings, the Golden Eagles kicked off the third with a leadoff walk by Emily Buchleitner. Desi Allen bombed a two-run home run over the fence in left center field for her first career round-tripper, boosting Clarion's lead to 4-0. That dispatched Cook from the game, but Perez allowed five straight Golden Eagles to reach base – three by hitting them with pitches, and two via walk – with Kathryn O'Horo and Carissa Giordano driving in runs in the process.
 
Alyssa Stitt scored Allison Gilliam with a single to center field to make it 7-0, and Buchleitner reached on an error at second base that scored Giordano and O'Hoor to make it 9-0. Rachel Helsley, Allen and Tori Martrano strung together three consecutive RBI singles to make it 12-0, and Brooke McCanna plated Allen on a groundout to second with two outs.
 
That took a good deal of the pressure off starter Emma Hipps, who earned her first career win in the rout. Hipps followed up her teammates' offensive explosion with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the third, and then conceded just four runs over the next two half innings to preserve the five-inning victory.
 
The win was Clarion's first win in a season-opener since 2011, when the Golden Eagels won four straight to start the year.
 
Giordano went 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and an RBI, while Allen finished 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs and two runs scored. Buchleitner was officially 0-for-2 but added two runs, two RBIs and a stolen base.
 
Game 2: USC Aiken 4, Clarion 2
Recap: The Pacers were the ones to draw first blood in the second half of the doubleheader, scoring one run apiece in the first and second innings off Golden Eagles starter Megan Anderson. Only one of those runs was earned, though, as Ella Stone scored on an error in the bottom of the second to make it 2-0.
 
The lead increased to 4-0 after a two-run home run from Emily Ayers, who put one over the fence in left center off pitcher Angelina Pepe. Buchleitner hit back at the Pacers with an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning, driving a ball to right center to score O'Horo. Brooke McCanna added an RBI groundout in the sixth inning to score Allen, but the Golden Eagles could not scrape together two more runs to tie the game.
 
Giordano, Stitt and Allen all recorded two hits in the second game, with Allen matching Buchleitner with a double. Pepe threw four innings of relief, allowing just two unearned runs.
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