PAINESVILLE, Ohio – DuBois graduate Casey Wilcox went 4-of-5 with two home runs, five RBIs and four runs scored in a 12-9, nine-inning Game One for the Clarion University softball team at Lake Erie Sunday that broke a 15-game losing streak for the Golden Eagles.
Clarion couldn’t keep the momentum going in Game Two falling, 6-0 and is now 4-28 on the year.
But in the first game, Wilcox belted her second dinger of the game in the ninth inning to give Clarion a four-run, 12-8, lead at the time. Christina Tressler had broken the tie with a single earlier in the inning.
Thanks to the international tiebreaking rule, Taylor Nonnenbergto the ninth-inning rally started for Clarion, which blew a five-run lead going to the bottom of the seventh, at second base and scored on a one-out single by Tressler. Paige Baker, who was 5-for-8 at the plate in the two games combined including 3-for-5 in Game One, then singled through the pitchers’ circle to put runners on first and third before Wilcox crushed her second homer of the game, this one to right center.
Clarion took a big lead in the first game with a five-run second inning, starting with Autumn Babcock’s sacrifice fly to score Baker. Cassie Daniels made it 2-0 with a bunt single to advance Rachel Hoffman to third and score Wilcox, and Nonnenberg brought them all home with a clout, her second in as many days, to right-center to make it a 5-0 advantage.
Wilcox then hit her first homer of the game in the third inning, a two-run shot, to put the Golden Eagles up 7-0.
But Clarion couldn’t hold the lead giving up a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to make it 7-2. After Clearfield grad Rachel Hoffman doubled home a run in fifth for the Golden Eagles, it was 8-2. But Lake Erie got one back in the bottom of the fifth then scored five in the seventh to force extra innings.
Kira Smith pitched four innings of relief in Game 1 for the win despite giving up the lead in the seventh. She allowed just one earned run.
The Storm was much more effective in pitching in the second game, holding the Golden Eagles to just three hits and no runs. Nonnenberg was the only Clarion player to get into scoring position, doing so in the fourth, but they could not bring her home.
Sarah Gossard took the hard-luck loss in Game 2, allowing two runs – one earned – in two innings of work.
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