SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University senior Nate Shadeck of Frenchville won the 400-meter hurdles in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Track and Field Challenge at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium Saturday.
The Clearfield Area High School graduate hit the finish line in 54.14 seconds.
The Rock easily won the seven-team meet title with 282 points.
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GREENSBURG, Pa. – Andrew Kirsch of Clearfield raised his batting average again last week with six hits as the Seton Hill University baseball team won four of six games to reach the .500 level for the first time this season.
The senior left fielder had a two-hit games against California and West Liberty (W.Va.) State to climb to .309 in 27 games, all but two of them as a starter. He belted two doubles and drove in four runs, boosting his total to 19, tied for second and just two behind the Griffins\’ leader.
Seton Hill (15-15) split with California and took three of four games from West Liberty (7-18) for a 5-3 start in its first year in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. West Liberty, also in the Northern Division, has a 2-6 WVIAC record.
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LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Back-to-back two-hit games against Mansfield and Indiana helped Lock Haven University second baseman James Zimmermann of Bigler (Clearfield Area H.S.) hike his batting average for the third consecutive week.
He collected five singles in six games and doubled his RBI total to six.
Zimmermann has 11 safeties for an .229 average. He has scored eight times.
The Bald Eagles (11-21) are 2-6 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division after losses of 3-2, 12-4 and 5-3 to PSAC West co-leader Indiana (25-10, 6-2). They beat the Crimson Hawks 17-2 in the first game of the weekend series. Because the second game of Saturday\’s double-header at Indiana was halted due to darkness, the teams ended up finishing that contest before their twinbill at Lock Haven Sunday.
Earlier in the week, the Bald Eagles lost two games against visiting Mansfield..
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BRADFORD, Pa. – Sophomore Bart McGary of Curwensville was switched from third base to first base last week by Pitt-Bradford baseball coach Bret Butler and collected three hits in four starts, but the Panthers dropped Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference twinbills to Penn State-Behrend 11-4 and 7-2 and Frostburg (W.Va.) State 1-0 and 6-3.
Sophomore catcher Phil Solley of Grampian (Curwensville Area H.S.) also saw action in all four games in a reserve role.
McGary raised his hit total to 13 and his batting average to .283 for the Panthers (6-12, 0-6 AMCC). He has driven in 11 runs and scored eight.
Solley\’s average dipped under .300 for the first time since the opening week of the season. He\’s at .289 with 11 hits, eight RBIs and four runs scored.
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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Clearfield Area High School products Scott Hugney of Frenchville and Adam Jury of Bigler had only one hit apiece as the Slippery Rock University baseball team dropped four of six games last week, including double-header splits with four-time defending Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division champion California.
The Rock (14-11, 4-4 PSAC West) lost twice at Ashland (Ohio).
Hugney, who played three games at first base, tumbled to .250 for the season. The senior has 10 hits, three of them doubles, and four RBIs. He\’s started 12 of the 16 games he\’s played.
Jury, a freshman who DHed one game and played shortstop in another, still is hitting .354 with six safeties. He\’s played in nine games, with four starts.
Sophomore Matt Adams of Philipsburg-Osceola had five hits in six games, but his average fell from .606 to .420. California third baseman Jeremy Potter, his former Mountie teammate, had five hits and four RBIs in the SRU series.
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INDIANA, Pa. – The wait is over for Clarion University freshman catcher Dana Johnson of Grampian (Curwensville Area H.S.) as she finally broke into the hit and runs batted in columns Sunday by lashing a double and a triple in a 5-4 loss to Indiana in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division softball action.
She accounted for all of the Golden Eagles\’ runs, driving in three and scoring the fourth on a error on her two-run triple to tie the score in the sixth inning. Indiana (10-16, 6-0 PSAC West) got the game-winning run in its next at bat for to sweep Clarion (2-13, 0-6).
Johnson was hitless in her first 20 official at-bats as a collegian, including in a pinch-hit role in the opening 4-0 defeat by the Crimson Hawks.
She was the first Golden Eagle to put the ball in play against Erin Holloway (4-7), who tied the PSAC record with 18 strikeouts. She had set Clarion down on strikes in each of the first five innings en route to a one-hit victory.
Clarion was coming off a Wednesday split against Mercyhurst, winning the nightcap 8-0 for its first win outside of the annual springs since April 13, 2006. The run total was the highest against an NCAA Division II foe since April 4, 2002. Slippery Rock was the opponent in both of those games.
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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Nikki Collins of Clearfield was unable to garner a hit in four games as the Slippery Rock University softball team swept a double-header from Salem (W.Va.) International but then dropped four games, all by one run, to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division opponents Indiana and Edinboro last week.
The freshman second baseman did drove in a run and scored a run in a 22-5 win over Salem. The Rock rolled 16-3 in the opener, and the 38 runs for the day set a school record that had stood since 1981.
Slippery Rock (14-10) fell to 0-8 in the PSAC-West with losses at Indiana (10-16, 6-0) 3-2 and 4-5 Saturday and at Edinboro (13-9, 3-1) 2-1 and 2-0 Sunday.
Collins, who has started every game for The Rock, is hitting.178 with eight hits, including three doubles and a triple. She\’s driven in five runs and scored 12 times.
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CANTON, Ohio – Middle distance runner Rebecca Shiner of Clearfield placed in two events for the Westminster College women\’s track and field team in the Jack Hazen Open at Malone College Saturday.
The Titan junior ran the 800 meters in a season-best 2:21.13 to finished third. The race had 28 entries from 11 teams.
Shiner ran the second leg for the 4×400 relay foursome that was third in 4:09.63. Tiffani Miller, Katie Kushner and Abbey Basta were the other runners.