GLENVILLE, W.Va. --- The Golden Eagle softball team earned a doubleheader split on Saturday afternoon, falling 3-0 to Glenville State in the early game before going off for a historic offensive output in a 19-15 win over West Virginia State.
 
Game 1: Glenville State 3, Clarion 0
Recap: The Pioneers received a dominant pitching performance from starter Holly Brehm, who allowed just two hits and struck out 15 Golden Eagles over the course of seven innings. That's not to say Clarion did not have chances to get on the scoreboard against Brehm, but the opportunities were few and far between. Perhaps their best chance came in the top of the first inning after Carissa Giordano reached on a leadoff walk. The senior centerfielder stole both second and third, but was stranded on the basepaths without scoring.
 
The other opportunity came in the sixth inning, when the Golden Eagles broke up the no-hitter with a pair of base knocks. Kathryn O'Horo led off the inning with a single, and Alyssa Stitt smacked a base hit to put runners on the corners with just one out. Brehm fanned Emily Buchleitner and Rachel Helsley to end the threat and the inning.
 
Kendyl Switzer started the game but was lifted after just 1.1 innings, allowed two runs on two hits and three walks. The Pioneers scored both runs in the bottom of the first, on a two-run double by Shelby MacDonald. Megan Anderson came in and provided 4.2 innings of two-hit ball, allowing just one run in the sixth inning.
 
Game 2: Clarion 19, West Virginia State 15
Recap: In a complete 180 from the previous game, Clarion's late afternoon contest with the Yellow Jackets was an absolute slugfest with a score more reminiscent of a football game than seven innings of softball. The teams combined for 32 hits but also eight errors. Clarion came up just one run shy of tying the program's single-game runs record, a 20-run outburst against Lake Erie on April 11, 2009.
 
That said, there were a number of individual offensive records matched or broken on Saturday. Alyssa Stitt went 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, a triple and two home runs, and in the process drove in a program-record eight RBIs, breaking a record held jointly by Jessica Cartia (2020) and Lauren Martino (2009). Stitt also set the program record for total bases in a game with 13, breaking Carlie Cook's previous record of 10 bases set in 2009.
 
Stitt and Emily Buchleitner both hit two home runs, making them two of just six players in program history to record multiple home runs in a game. It was the first time two Golden Eagles hit two home runs apiece in the same game. Buchleitner finished 2-of-4 with two home runs, three runs scored and three RBIs.
 
Those were just the headliners. Giordano went 3-for-4 with two doubles and four RBIs, while Helsley and O'Horo also posted multiple hits. Clarion batters combined for 12 extra-base hits, and Helsley, Desi Allen, O'Horo and Tori Martano also recorded RBIs.
 
The Yellow Jackets were relentless at the plates themselves, exploding for 11 combined runs in the first and second innings. But what at first looked like a laugher quickly turned into an outrageous display of Golden Eagle offensive prowess, starting in the bottom of the second. O'Horo got the Golden Eagles on the board with an RBI single to score Hannah Powierza, and Giordano brought home Emma Hipps with a sacrifice fly. That was when Stitt uncorked her first home run of the day, hitting one over the left field fence to make it 11-4.
 
Buchleitner and Allen both drove RBI doubles to make it 11-6, and Martrano capped the scoring in the second inning with an RBI single to make it 11-7. Things kept rolling in the third, starting with a two-run double by Giordano and an RBI triple by Stitt that made it 11-10. Buchleitner gave the Golden Eagles an improbable lead in the next at-bat, pounding a 1-1 pitch over the fence in right-center to make it 12-11.
 
Giordano and Stitt lashed RBI two-run doubles in the fourth inning to give Clarion a 15-11 lead, while Stitt and Buchleitner hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 19-13. Hipps gave up a two-run shot in the seventh as the Yellow Jackets pulled to within four runs, but she settled and got the final outs for the win.
 
Ashley DeWeese got the start in the circle but threw just one inning, allowing seven runs. Hipps earned her second win of the year, going 6.0 innings and allowing eight runs. Read Full Article