CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles baseball team closed out the 2025 season at home with a doubleheader split against Lock Haven. Clarion won the first game 9-7, holding off a late charge by the Bald Eagles, but fell 6-5 in a second game that was split by an hour-long lightning delay.
 
Game 1: Clarion 9, Lock Haven 7
RECAP: The first game of the day was filled with offense, with the Golden Eagles exploding for five runs in the bottom of the third inning. They had previously rallied from a 2-0 deficit after the top of the second inning and then had to hold off a push from the Bald Eagles to claim the win.
 
Lock Haven recorded back-to-back sacrifice flies in the top of the second inning, with Jake Ambrosio nearly hitting a grand slam over the left field fence, to take a 2-0 lead.
 
Clarion got those runs back and then some in the bottom of the second. Jack Hurda led off the inning by being hit with a pitch and then scored on an error by shortstop Bryce Vincent. Tyson Gill tied the score with an infield single to score Tommy Smith, with Will Stambaugh unable to throw Gill out at first on soft grounder. Ethan Giangiulio gave the Golden Eagles the 3-2 lead, hitting an RBI groundout to first base.
 
Ethan Nagy tied the game for the Bald Eagles in the top of the third, smacking a solo home run over the fence in left field with one out. Clarion responded with five runs on four hits in the bottom of the third, including a back-to-back RBI singles from Ethan McNally and Gill, and a sacrifice fly by Doran Mast. Gill eventually scored on a balk, and Randy Carlo drove an opposite field double to right to score Giangiulio and make it 8-3.
 
The Golden Eagles held that lead for the remainder of the game, though they had a scare in the top of the fifth inning when the Bald Eagles scored three runs on four hits to pull within 8-7. Clarion got some insurance in the bottom of the sixth when Sam Felner's single to left field was booted for an error, allowing Caden Contant to score and make it 9-7. Carter Barrett finished off an effective relief appearance in the top of the seventh, stranding two runners for the save.
 
Game 2: Lock Haven 6, Clarion 5
RECAP: Runs came in big chunks in the second game of the day, with Clarion building a 5-0 lead early on but finding themselves unable to add onto it for the rest of the game. Lock Haven, meanwhile, struggled through four straight scoreless innings to start the game before scoring six combined in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 6-5 lead.
 
In the bottom of the third inning, Giangiulio got things going with a double to the gap in left center field, giving the Golden Eagles a 2-0 lead by scoring Cole Yeager and Gill. Carlo pulled a single into left field to make it 3-0, and Contant brought him home with a two-run shot over the fence in left center to make it 5-0.
 
Reilly Shafer did a good job of keeping the Bald Eagles off the scoreboard in the early going. He turned a key double play in the top of the third inning, playing a ground ball by Stephen McMillan and firing to second for a 1-6-3 double play.
 
The Bald Eagles scored two runs in the top of the fifth inning, and they then blew up for four runs in the top of the sixth inning after drawing four walks and notching two hits. A thunderstorm in the area paused the game for nearly an hour, and upon resuming Lock Haven recorded the final four outs of the game for the win.
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