CLARION, Pa. – The specters of a few tough innings haunted the Golden Eagle softball team on Thursday afternoon, as Clarion fell in both ends of a doubleheader to Gannon at Memorial Stadium. The Golden Knights took the first game by a 10-5 score, and the second in a 7-1 win. The Golden Eagles (7-13, 5-11 PSAC West) kept pace with their divisional foes for the most part, with a few key moments making the difference in the Golden Knights' favor.

It was not all bad at the ballpark, though. Jessica Cartia drove in three runs in the opening half of the doubleheader to give her 24 RBIs on the season. That tied Natalie Zimmerman's single-season program record set during the 2007 season, with 20 games left still left on the schedule. Earlier this season Cartia broke the program's career RBI record, and now has 79 career RBIs.
 
Gannon rode a hot offensive start to victory in the first game of the day, scoring nine runs in the first two innings by taking care of a couple Clarion defensive miscues to build a large early lead. However, the Golden Eagles stopped the bleeding and generally kept it close the rest of the way, responding with five runs themselves in the third and fourth innings. Chelsea Liroff entered in relief and was charged with just two runs over 5.2 innings pitched, and the Golden Eagle offense chipped away at some of that Gannon lead.
 
The first big swing came in the bottom of the third inning, when Carissa Giordano and Brooke Cline strung together back-to-back singles with one out. Makenzie Wolfe drew a walk to load the bases, and Cartia lifted a double to the wall to clear the bases and cut the deficit to 9-3. The Golden Eagles struck with two more runs in the fourth, starting when Liroff scored on a throwing error by DeMatteis to make it 9-4. Cline brought Alyssa Stitt across with a grounder to shortstop, and it seemed that Clarion had seized the momentum of the game.
 
The Golden Knights rallied themselves in the fifth, with DeMatteis retiring the heart of the Golden Eagle order 1-2-3 to maintain their lead. Lea Coffman tacked on another run in the sixth with a double to the left field foul pole that scored a run, and DeMatteis worked out of a couple jams in the ensuing two innings to secure the 10-5 win.
 
The second game was close for six innings as well, with Gannon taking an early 1-0 lead but never pulling away until very late in the contest. The Golden Knights led 2-0 after a Kaity Stocker solo home run off Megan Anderson in the fourth inning, but Clarion made headway in the bottom of the sixth with aggressive baserunning and a defensive miscue by Gannon. Stitt led off the inning with a double to dee center field, and scored one batter later when Cline reached second on a two-base throwing error by Coffman. Hannah Norton reached on a fielder's choice to give Clarion a runner aboard with one out, but pitcher Rebecca Tatone retired the final two batters of the inning to preserve the 2-1 lead.
 
From there, the Golden Knights pounced, scoring five runs – none earned – in the top of the seventh inning, building a 7-1 advantage in part due to three Clarion errors. The Golden Eagles put runners on first and second in the home half of the inning before Tatone induced the game-ending groundout.