SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. --- Picking up a game that started a week before, the Golden Eagle softball team dropped a road game at Slippery Rock on Wednesday, falling 8-7 to the Rock in what had been the second half of a doubleheader.
 
The game had actually started seven days before, with Clarion building a 7-4 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. The Golden Eagles jumped out to a significant lead early on, with Rachel Helsley continuing her red-hot run at the plate with a home run. Emily Buchleitner was hit by a pitch and Kathryn O'Horo hit a single to put two runners on, and Helsley made the Rock pay with a three-run opposite field home run on a 2-1 pitch from starter Kelsi Anderson.
 
Clarion tacked onto that lead in the top of the second inning, with an error at third base enabling Buchleitner to score from second base and increase the lead to 4-0. Helsley struck again in the top of the fourth inning, this time clearing the bases loaded with a three-run double to the gap in left-center field.
 
That extra-base hit gave the Golden Eagles a 7-1 lead, but Slippery Rock got three of those runs back in the home half of the fourth to cut the advantage down to 7-4. Tori Martrano helped to keep that lead from getting any larger, though, turning an unassisted double play at third base with the bases loaded and no outs. She knocked down a hard grounder from Julia Montie and stepped on third base for one out, and astutely made a quick throw home to get Brown out in a force at home. Pitcher Ashley DeWeese then induced a grounder from Freeman for the third out.
 
The Golden Eagles had a chance to increase the lead in the top of the fifth inning on Annika Smith's hard grounder through the middle, but Slippery Rock made a key defensive play to get Desi Allen at home to end the inning.
 
Play resumed a week later, and this time the Rock got the better of the Golden Eagles. Slippery Rock scored four runs on four hits in the bottom of the fifth inning, including a two-run home run by Alexsa Hurd with two outs that put her team ahead by a run. Clarion had just two baserunners in the remainder of the game, a walk by O'Horo in the sixth inning and one by Martrano in the seventh, but Anderson shut the door and kept Clarion off the scoreboard.
 
Helsley finished the game 2-for-4 with six RBIs and a run scored. She now has seven home runs and 35 RBIs on the season.
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