EDINBORO, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle softball team fell in a pair of one-run games on the road on Sunday afternoon, kicking off the final week of the regular season at Edinboro. The Fighting Scots won the games by scores of 3-2 and 11-10, respectively.
 
Edinboro 3, Clarion 2
Recap: It what turned out to be a theme for the day, the first game featured drama throughout all seven innings, those the scoring all occurred in the final three innings. Starting pitchers Emma Hipps and Macy Sral traded zeroes until the bottom of the fourth inning, when a Golden Eagle error played a part in two runs scoring.
 
Antonia Schaefer led off the inning reaching on an error by Tori Martrano, and the Fighting Scots eventually ended up with runners on second and third with one out. Morgan Spitler hit a sacrifice fly and Maura Pasquale added an RBI single to make it 2-0, with both runs counting as unearned.
 
Clarion did not put themselves on the scoreboard until the top of the sixth inning, but when they did, they knotted the game up at two runs apiece. Carissa Giordano led off the inning with a double, and two batters later Allison Gilliam bashed her second home run of the season, lifting a ball over the fence in center field to even up the game. It marked a departure from early in the game, as Sral allowed only two runners into scoring position to that point.
 
Edinboro responded in the bottom of the seventh, earning the win with a walkoff on a wild pitch. Kayla Terwilliger hit a one-out double, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. She was able to take home on a wild pitch as well, giving the Fighting Scots a 3-2 win.
 
Hipps finished having throw 6.1 innings, allowing three runs – one earned – while striking out four. Clarion totaled four hits, with both extra-base hits – Giordano's double and Gilliam's home run – coming in the fourth inning.
 
Edinboro 11, Clarion 10
Recap: The second game of the day featured far more hitting but also the same amount of drama, as the teams duked it out back and forth. This time the Golden Eagles struck first, when Rachel Helsley and Emily Buchleitner rapped back-to-back doubles, with the former scoring Alyssa Stitt from second base and the latter bringing Helsley home. Mackzenzie Quider hit a three-run home run in the home half of the inning to give Edinboro a 3-2 lead, and the race was on as both sides racked up the runs.
 
Clarion exploded for seven runs in the third inning, including two home runs to give them a six-run lead. Stitt jacked her team-leading fifth homer of the year over the center field fence, scoring Giordano to put the Golden Eagles ahead 4-3. They loaded the bases over the course of the next four batters, starting when Allison Gilliam was hit by a pitch. Helsley, Buchleitner and Martrano followed with three consecutive singles, with Martrano driving in a run to make it 5-3. Amber Gilliam provided the coup de grace, hitting a grand slam over the center field fence to drive the Golden Eagles' lead to 9-3.
 
Edinboro got two of those runs back in the home half of the inning, though Brooke McCanna increased the lead to 10-5 with an RBI single in the fifth. That led to the Fighting Scots' big inning, with Edinboro scoring five runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score. Stephanie Krick hit an RBI single and came around to score on Cheyenne Shughart's two-run homer, and an error at third base allowed two runs to score to even it up.
 
The Golden Eagles took the lead back once again in the top of the sixth inning, with Buchleitner hitting a hard single to center field to broke Allison Gilliam home from second base. Shughart bopped another two-run home run in the bottom of the inning, giving the Fighting Scots a 12-11 lead that they held for good this time.
 
The pitching staffs in the second game were taxed, as Clarion used three pitchers and the Fighting Scots five hurlers. Sral entered in relief, winning the second game of the day. Megan Anderson suffered the loss, giving up seven runs, including the decisive tallies in the sixth after re-entering the game. Buchleitner finished 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs and a run scored, while Amber Gilliam finished with four RBIs. Read Full Article