CLARION, Pa.- The Slippery Rock University softball team increased its winning streak to five games with a doubleheader sweep of Clarion University Wednesday afternoon at Memorial Stadium in Clarion, Pennsylvania.
Slippery Rock produced a season-high run total in its 15-7 win in game one before earning the sweep with an 8-3 victory in game two.
With the wins, The Rock improves to 15-18 overall. Clarion falls to 5-35 on the year.
Emily Nagle produced back-to-back four-hit games against the Golden Eagles to increase her season total to 56 hits, which is just four shy of the SRU single-season record set by head coach
Stacey Rice in 2007. Nagle is now batting a conference-best .463 this spring.
GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 15, Clarion 7
The Rock opened game one in a big way as they scored six runs in the first inning.
Caitlin Baxter started the scoring streak for The Rock with a two-run double to score Nagle and
Megan Brown.
Nicole Siciliano scored Baxter on an RBI single,
Machala Andrews had a two-run single, and Nagle sent Andrews home on her second hit of the inning to give The Rock a six-run lead. The Golden Eagles got one run back in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-1.
In the third inning, The Rock stretched it to 7-1 as Nagle scored
McKenzie Garland from third base on an RBI single.
Clarion plated four runs in the bottom of the fourth, thanks in part to Alexis Boie's three-run double.
In the fifth inning, Baxter scored
Alexa Guglielmino from second base on an RBI single before scoring on a fielding error to give The Rock a 9-5 lead.
Garland sparked a three-run sixth inning with a double and scored the next at-bat on a fielding error. Nagle recorded another RBI single that scored
Hannah Nestor before scoring herself on an RBI ground-out by Brown to make it 12-5. Clarion got back two runs in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back RBI singles.
The Rock had another three-run inning in the seventh, with two runs coming from
Lauren Hawley and Garland scoring on wild pitches. SRU's other run came from Andrews' ground-out RBI to score Siciliano.
Nagle went 4-for-5 with three RBI in game one, while Andrews had four RBI and Baxter had three hits and three RBI.
Carly DeRose (5-7) earned the win for The Rock after striking out four batters across three innings.
Andria Copelli earned the first save of her career after recording two strike outs in four innings.
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 8, Clarion 3
Hawley gave The Rock 3-0 lead in the opening inning of game two with a three-run home run, her second of the year. The Golden Eagles got back one run in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-1.
With two outs in the second inning, Brown scored Guglielmino on an RBI single before Baxter smacked a two-run double that scored Nagle and Brown.
Clarion made it a 6-2 game in the fourth inning when Rachel Hoffman registered an RBI single.
The Rock scored two more runs in the sixth inning when Hawley and
Kailey Myers recorded individual RBIs. The Golden Eagles one final run in the bottom of the inning when Sarah Gossard had a sacrifice fly out to right field.
Nagle's 4-for-5 performance in game two led Slippery Rock, while Hawley added four RBI and Baxter had two.
Brooke Dawson (10-6) earned her fourth straight victory as she struck out five in five innings of work.
Paige Flore also pitched two innings of relief.
Slippery Rock will host Seton Hill University Friday afternoon in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division doubleheader starting at 2:30 p.m.
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