BUTLER, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles baseball team played a pair of competitive games against a perennial PSAC power on Sunday, but Clarion ultimately dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Mercyhurst at Pullman Park. The Lakers won the first game by a 5-0 score, and then came from behind to win the second game 8-5.
 
Game 1: Mercyhurst 5, Clarion 0
 
RECAP: The final five-run deficit does not quite tell the tale of the first game, which played out as more of a "death of a thousand cuts" narrative for the Lakers. Mercyhurst scored one run apiece in each of the first three innings before finally putting up a crooked number in the top of the sixth inning to provide additional insurance.
 
Similar to the two games on Saturday, though, the Golden Eagles struggled to put together a sustained offensive attack against the Lakers. Aidan Kelly threw the complete-game shutout despite four walks and three hits allowed, permitting just two Golden Eagles to reach scoring position in seven innings.
 
Mercyhurst scored their first run of the game just two batters in, with Matt Christopher hitting a leadoff triple to the right-center gap and scoring on a sacrifice fly by Zach Kourous. Jayden Walker scored on a two-out error in the top of the second inning, and Ranciel Ventura drove in a run with a single in the top of the third to make it a 3-0 game.
 
Clarion's best opportunity to score might have been in the very next half-inning, when Lenny Piccini lifted a double to right field to lead off the inning. Nate Petke worked a six-pitch walk to put runners on first and second, but a well-executed defensive play on Tyler Meachum's attempted sacrifice bunt erased Piccini from the basepaths and put one out on the board. Kelly induced a ground-ball double play from Kasey Shughart in the next at-bat to end the threat.
 
The Lakers scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning on a two-run homer by Kourous, giving them a 5-0 lead. Clarion put a pair of runners on in the bottom of the sixth, on a one-out single by Shughart and a two-out walk by Daren Byers respectively. Caden Contant hit a grounder to short to end the inning, and the Lakers held the Golden Eagles scoreless in the seventh for the win.
 
Game 2: Mercyhurst 8, Clarion 5
 
RECAP: The Golden Eagles were the first to strike in the second game of the doubleheader, scoring four runs in the first two innings before the Lakers rallied for eight unanswered tallies. Clarion scored their four runs at the beginning of the game on just two hits, taking advantage of miscues from Mercyhurst's Nolan Kirsch to take the lead.
 
After retiring the first two batters of the first inning, Kirsch issued a trio of free passes, starting with back-to-back walks to McManamon and Byers. He compounded things by hitting Caden Contant with a pitch to load the bases and Ethan Giangiulio made him pay, driving a hard ground ball over second base for a two-run single.
 
Mercyhurst got one of those runs back in the top of the second, when Jayden Walker hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Chris Juchno, but the Golden Eagles went right back to work in the home half of the inning. Piccini and Meachum were hit by pitches in back-to-back plate appearances to lead off the inning, and Shughart moved them both up a base with a sacrifice bunt to third base. Griffin Snyder hit a hard grounder to first base to score Piccini and McManamon drilled a single to center field to plate Meachum, giving Clarion a 4-1 lead.
 
The Lakers made up two of those runs in the third inning with a two-run home run by Juchno, and they eventually took the lead with a five-run fifth that put them ahead 8-4. Mitchell Grosch put Mercyhurst ahead 5-4 with a two-run home run, and Kourous added a two-run single with two outs to make it a four-run game.
 
Clarion had one last gasp in the bottom of the seventh inning, starting with back-to-back singles from Piccini and Meachum to lead off the inning. McManamon hit a single through the left side to score a run that made it 8-5, and Clarion still had a pair of runners on when Byers hit a fly ball to deep center field that was caught to end the game.