BETHANY, W.Va. --- The Golden Eagle baseball team wrapped up a long stretch of non-conference action before PSAC play kicks off next weekend, falling by a 9-4 score to Wheeling at a game played at Bethany. The contest was a makeup for the canceled game between Clarion and Wheeling originally scheduled for last weekend.
 
The game was close through the first five-and-a-half innings, with the Cardinals holding just a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth. Wheeling blew up for six combined runs over the next two frames, going ahead 9-2 after seven full. The Golden Eagles got two of those runs back in the top of the eighth inning but couldn't get enough offensive traction after that point.
 
It was a 2-0 lead for the Cardinals in the top of the third inning, after Bode Stewart scored on Christian Boyles' fielder's choice in the previous half-inning. Clarion cut that lead in half in the top of the third, starting with Scotty McManamon's one-out double to deep left field. He sprinted to third on a wild pitch and then came home on Caden Contant's two-out double to left, the latter's team-leading 12^th RBI of the year.
 
It was once again a two-run game after the bottom of the third, after Spencer Craig hit a solo home run off Vinnie Markulin to make it 3-1. The real blow-up came in the sixth inning, though, when the Cardinals ran up four runs to increase their lead to 7-1. Kasey Shughart brought McManamon home after hitting a two-out single to center field, bringing McManamon across from second base but getting himself thrown out at second in the process.
 
The Golden Eagles worked to get back into the game in the top of the eighth inning. Contant led off the frame with a walk and Mason Kepler made sure the Cardinals paid for the free pass in the very next at-bat, drilling a two-run homer over the left field wall to make it 9-4. Lenny Piccini and Will Martinez both drew walks before the end of the inning, but Tyson Gill flew out to left to end the threat.
 
Shughart went 2-for-4 at the dish to up his batting average to .383 for the season, as well as an RBI. Contant went 2-for-3 with a run scored, an RBI and two walk drawn. Markulin got the start on the mound, throwing three innings and allowing three runs.
 
 
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