CARY, N.C. --- The Golden Eagle baseball team got off to a good start, but an error in the top of the seventh inning allowed Kutztown to break the game open as Clarion fell 14-4 to the Golden Bears on Friday night.
 
The game between the Golden Bears and Golden Eagles was dead even through six full innings of action, as starting pitchers Reilly Shafer and Jake Skrocki limited their opponents through that time. Shafer gave up just a pair of runs early in the game, including an RBI single by Bo Barthol and a fourth-inning sacrifice fly by Michael Burns.
 
Skrocki, meanwhile, gave up just four hits to the Golden Eagles, but two of those led to Clarion's first two runs of the game. Kasey Shughart hit a one-out double to right field in the top of the third inning and Scotty McManamon did the rest, hitting his first home run of the season over the left field fence to briefly give Clarion a 2-1 lead.
 
What had been a modest pitcher's duel through six innings turned into a runaway for the Golden Bears in the top of the seventh inning, with all of the damage coming with two outs. Shafer got the first out of the inning but back-to-back walks – one by Shafer, and one by reliever Vinnie Markulin – put runners on first and second with one out. Markulin whiffed Barthol for the second out and appeared to have the third as well, but an error at first base loaded the bases for the Golden Bears with two outs. Jimmy Kerley hit a bases-clearing double to score three runs, and Kutztown scored 11 runs in the top of the seventh to take a 13-2 lead.
 
The Golden Eagles cut into the deficit in the bottom of the inning, starting with Tyler Meachum's leadoff double. He advanced to third on a balk by pitcher Tyler Cleveland and scored on Sam Felner's hard groundout to shortstop. Tyson Gill followed with a one-out double, and he came around to score after Shughart hit a hard shot through the left side of the infield that was just out of the grasp of the shortstop, making it 13-4.
 
Kutztown tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning, and Clarion was retired in order in the ninth to clinch the game.
 
Shughart finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, while McManamon went 1-for-4 with the home run. Shafer took the hard luck loss, allowing three runs – one unearned – in 6.1 innings. Of the 14 runs allowed by Clarion on Friday, only three were earned.
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