CLARION, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University softball team lost both games of its non-conference doubleheader against Clarion University Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Clarion, Pennsylvania.
The Golden Eagles (10-16, 7-14 PSAC West) took game one, 11-10, in nine innings before completing the sweep over SRU (8-22, 6-18 PSAC West) with a 10-7 comeback victory in game two.
Cami Fisk led The Rock offense over the two games going 2-for-6 with three runs scored and four RBI.
Leah Vith added a 2-for-7 showing at the plate with a home run, a double, three runs scored and three RBI. Vith has now hit two home runs in her last three games and is batting .471 (8-for-17) over SRU's last five contests.
Alexa Guglielmino (3-for-7),
Courtney Hoffman (3-for-8),
Erin Gardner (2-for-7, two walks) and
Anna Villies (2-for-6, two walks) all collected hits in both games Saturday as well. Gardner and Villies also scored four runs apiece over the course of the doubleheader while Hoffman and Guglielmino added RBI in both games.
Guglielmino and Gardner exit the weekend in the midst of nine-game and eight-game hitting streaks, respectively.
Game One: Clarion 11, Slippery Rock 10 (Nine Innings)
Slippery Rock led by four runs entering the fourth but Clarion rallied to force extra innings prior to securing an 11-10 victory in nine innings.
Vith paced the SRU offense, that tied a season-high in runs scored along with tallying 11 hits, going 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and three RBI. Fisk tallied two hits and two RBI while Guglielmino and Hoffman added an RBI apiece.
Kaitlyn Bowman recorded two RBI to round out SRU's top performers.
Kelsi Anderson (3-7, 2.54 ERA) took a no decision after allowing five runs on five hits over 1.2 innings before giving way to
Chloe Sharman (2-6, 3.31 ERA) who pitched the final seven frames, yielding six runs, four being earned, on six hits and six walks while striking out six batters for the second-consecutive game.
Rebecca Kelley led the Golden Eagle lineup going 2-for-3 with a home run, a triple, a run scored, two walks and five RBI. Kelley (1-5, 7.67 ERA) also got the start in the circle for Clarion, taking a no decision after giving up two runs on two hits and four walks in two innings. Megan Anderson (2-5, 5.12 ERA) earned the win after pitching 5.1 innings and allowing just one unearned run on two hits while striking out two.
With the contest tied entering the fourth, Slippery Rock scored four runs on four hits highlighted by a two-run home run by Vith, a Guglielmino RBI-double and a run-scoring single by Hoffman to take its largest lead of the day at 9-5.
Clarion responded with three runs in the bottom of the frame when Kelley lined a three-run home run over the left field wall to cut its deficit to 9-8. Two innings later, the Golden Eagles tied the contest when Kelley struck again with a run-scoring triple into the right center field gap.
The game remained tied at 9-9 until the top of the eighth when Vith brought home Gardner to give SRU a one-run advantage. The Golden Eagles responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning. However, Sharman worked out of a runner on third, one-out jam after Brooke Cline grounded into a double play to force a ninth inning.
In the ninth,
Maggie Moore was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning followed by a Guglielmino sacrifice bunt to move the placed runner, Fisk, to third and Moore to second with just one out. However, Slippery Rock was unable to push the go-ahead run across as Anderson retired the next two batters.
The Golden Eagles tallied the winning run in the bottom half of the frame when the placed runner Cline came home to score on a sacrifice fly by Jessica Cartia to secure the game one win.
Game Two: Clarion 10, Slippery Rock 7
Slippery Rock jumped out to a seven-run lead through three innings, but Clarion stormed back by scoring 10 unanswered runs over the fourth and fifth innings to secure the 10-7 comeback victory and a sweep of the doubleheader.
Fisk led The Rock offense with a run scored and two RBI while Guglielmino, Hoffman, Moore, Villies and
Julianna Hutchinson had one RBI apiece.
Claire Zimmerman (3-9, 5.07 ERA) took the loss after allowing eight runs, five being earned, on nine hits over 3.1 innings before being relieved by
Haley Schmidt who pitched the final 2.2 frames yielding two unearned runs on two hits in her collegiate debut.
Kelley continued to swing a hot bat in the night cap, going 2-for-3 with a run scored and three RBI. Starting pitcher Zoe Ott (0-0, 13.59 ERA) was chased from the contest after allowing four runs without recording an out. Laura Sadowski (3-2, 5.73 ERA) earned the win after pitching seven innings in relief, giving up three runs on eight hits.
Slippery Rock opened the scoring with seven runs over the first three innings, highlighted by a pair of RBI-singles by Hoffman and Moore in the first and a run-scoring single off the bat of Villies in the third.
Zimmerman started strong in the circle, allowing just three hits through her first three innings. However, the Golden Eagle offense surged over the next two innings, tallying 10 unanswered runs including scoring eight runs on six hits in the fourth and an additional two runs in the fifth to seal the 10-7 comeback win.
UP NEXT
Slippery Rock returns to action April 23 as it welcomes the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown to the SRU Softball Complex for a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division doubleheader. First pitch of game one is slated for 2:30 p.m.
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