Sports
Golden Eagles softball drop first four league games
Freshman Elizabeth Shiring records five hits in Clarion’s doubleheader against Bloomsburg. (Justin Gmoser/ The Clarion Call)
The Clarion Golden Eagles softball team finally was able to play ball early this week.
On Monday, March 28, they had a doubleheader against Lock Haven University, and on Tuesday, March 29, they played two games against Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
On Monday, Clarion dropped the first game 7-1 and game two 8-2.
Tuesday was the Golden Eagles home opener, which didn’t go Clarion’s way either.
In game one, IUP won in a blowout 13-4, and in game two, the Golden Eagles battled but fell short 4-2.
The Golden Eagles’ bats were quiet in game one against Lock Haven.
There was one exception, and that was freshman Paige Alexander.
She had all of Clarion’s hits, going 3-3 knocking in their only run.
“I just went out there looking for hits,” Alexander said.
“I looked for the first pitch to be a strike because the pitcher will usually want to be ahead in the count. I just saw my chance to do what I could to help out my team.”
Junior Megan Daley went six innings, giving up eight hits and seven runs.
In game two, the bats woke up a little bit but weren’t enough to get the win.
Freshman Elizabeth Shiring went 2-4, and sophomore Nicole Lindner went 1-2 with two RBIs.
Sophomore Erica Burkey went six innings and gave up eight runs.
Senior Carlie Cook and freshman Katie Barco both went deep in the first game of the double header against IUP.
They combined to drive in all four runs and got the bats rolling.
IUP wasn’t fazed by the long balls and put up 13 runs in the game.
The second game was more competitive, but IUP took that one as well and swept the doubleheader. Shiring went 1-3 with the team’s only RBI.
Clarion has dropped five games in a row after starting out the season 5-2.
“We have been making way too many errors,” Daley said.
“They are all basic plays we should be making.”
“I think we need to just play the whole game,” Alexander said.
“We get 2-3 good innings during the game when we should be playing like that the whole game.”
Because of the weather here in western Pennsylvania, the softball team had five double headers postponed and had a 17-day drought between their last game in South Carolina
and last Monday’s games.
The Golden Eagles will be back in action on Saturday, April 2, when they travel to West Chester University for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
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