JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Golden Eagle baseball team pulled off a road conference sweep on Saturday afternoon, taking both games of a doubleheader against Pitt-Johnstown at Sargent's Stadium. Clarion needed nine innings to take down the Mountain Cats in the first game, beating them 9-8, and then got the job done with a come-from-behind 9-8 victory in the second game.
Game 1: Clarion 9, Pitt-Johnstown 8 (9 inn.)
RECAP: The entire doubleheader against the Mountain Cats was a rollercoaster of emotions, and the first game encapsulated that feeling as the teams needed extra innings to determine a victory. The first seven innings of action saw six total runs – three each for either side – that all came in the fourth inning, but otherwise, there were a dozen zeroes combined on the scoreboard.
The Golden Eagles struck first, scoring three runs in the top of the fourth inning to briefly take the advantage. After Caden Contant and
Griffin Snyder reached on one-out walks, Sam Economy drove a double to left field to bring the first run of the day across. Ethan Giangiulio followed with an RBI single, and Tyson Gill drove in the third run of the inning with a single to center field that made it 3-0.
The Mountain Cats countered with three runs of their own in the home half of the inning, including an RBI triple from Justin Turcovski. Neither side scored again until the top of the eighth inning when Clarion's Mason Kepler and Tyson Gill hit back-to-back RBI singles to up the lead to 5-3. Again Pitt-Johnstown responded, scoring two runs on another triple from Turcovski to make it 5-5.
Clarion took the lead again in the top of the ninth inning, starting with singles by Daren Byers and Caden Contant. Alfredo Hurtado – who earlier this week hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to clinch a win over Bloomsburg – smacked a three-run home run with two outs, giving the Golden Eagles a 9-5 lead in extra innings. The Mountain Cats scored three runs to threaten in the bottom of the ninth, but Reilly Shafer finished off the win by inducing Turcovski into a flyout to end the game.
Game 2: Clarion 9, Pitt-Johnstown 8
RECAP: It was another wild ride in the second game as the teams traded leads throughout, with Clarion holding a 7-6 lead at one point and later needing two runs in the top of the seventh inning to take the lead for good. UPJ held a 4-0 lead after the bottom of the first inning, including a solo home run by Garrett Prosper to cap the four-run rally.
The Golden Eagles' Lenny Piccini followed with a home run of his own in the top of the second inning, scoring Hurtado and himself on the first pitch he saw from pitcher Ben Tomb to cut the lead in half. Devon Boyles and Turcovski added onto the lead in the third inning, making it 6-2, but from there Clarion seized the momentum. The Golden Eagles got one run back on Tyler Meachum's two-out RBI single that scored Economy to make it 6-3, and the team took the lead with a significant outburst in the fifth. Hurtado drove in Kasey Shughart with an RBI single to make it 6-4, and Piccini cleared the bases loaded with a massive three-run, two-out double to make the score a 7-6 Clarion lead.
UPJ was not content to go down quietly, scoring two runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth inning to go back ahead 8-7. That set the stage for a dramatic seventh inning, one in which the Golden Eagles got the better of their opponent. Gill scored Griffin Snyder on an infield single to tie the game, and Piccini added his sixth RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to deep right field to bring Hurtado across. Giangliulio – who entered the game in the sixth inning – overcame a one-out single by Boyles to retire the Mountain Cats and clinch the win.
