EBENSBURG, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle softball team concluded their 2023 season on Saturday afternoon, falling to Pitt-Johnstown in a pair of games played at Central Cambria High School. The Mountain Cats won the first game 9-1 in five innings, and the second 7-5 in extra innings.
 
Clarion concludes their season with a 17-29 overall record, marking a 12-win improvement on last year's record. It also marks the second-most wins for a single season in program history, behind only the 19 wins recorded by the 1982 team.
 
Pitt-Johnstown 9, Clarion 1 (5 inn.)
Recap: The Mountain Cats jumped on the Golden Eagles in the very first inning of action, with Jenna Tallman and Mia Smith both hitting home runs in the bottom of the first. The former led off the game with her bomb and the latter hit hers with two runners on base, giving UPJ a 4-0 lead and chasing starter Emma Hipps from the game.
 
Clarion responded back with a solo home run of their own, as Allison Gilliam hit a solo home run in the top of the second to pull her team within three runs. That highlighted a 2-for-2 game at the dish for Gilliam, who also recorded a single in the game.
 
From that point on, though, Pitt-Johnstown's Tori Radvan took control of the game. She allowed just two more Golden Eagle hits the rest of the way, a single by Rachel Helsley with two outs in the fourth inning and Gilliam's base knock to lead off the fifth inning. Radvan held the Golden Eagles from putting another runner in scoring position for the remainder of the game.
 
Meanwhile, the Mountain Cats were the beneficiaries of three more home runs in the game, running their score up to 9-1 before ending the game in the fifth inning. Tallman added a three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 8-1, while Radvan and Shaylin Hagerman also hit homers.
 
Angelina Pepe entered the game in relief in the first inning, throwing 3.1 innings of action.
 
Pitt-Johnstown 7, Clarion 5 (8 inn.)
Recap: A furious rally in the seventh inning extended the second game of the day into extra innings, as Clarion came back from a 5-2 deficit to knot things up with three runs. Carissa Giordano led off the inning with a double and eventually came around to score on Emily Buchleitner's two-run home run, the latter's second of the game and her fifth of the season. Rachel Helsley drew a walk in the next at-bat and eventually came around to score on a passed ball, tying the game at 5-5.
 
Pitcher Kendyl Switzer kept the Mountain Cats off the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning, shutting them out to give her team a chance to score in the eighth. Pitt-Johnstown caught a break when Allison Gilliam hit into a double play after Brooke McCanna led off with a single, and Giordano was caught stealing with two outs to end the frame. Emilia Santiago ended the game in the bottom of the eighth, hitting a two-run walk-off home run.
 
Buchleitner hit her first home run of the game in the first inning, briefly giving the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead. Tori Martrano added a longball in the top of the second, hitting one over the left field fence to make it a 2-0 lead for Clarion. The Mountain Cats responded with five runs off Switzer, including a three-spot in the bottom of the second and a two-run home run by Julia Mooney in the third.
 
Giordano, Buchleitner, Martrano and McCanna all finished with two hits. Switzer went 7.2 innings in the final game of her college career, allowing seven runs – five earned.
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