QUAKERTOWN, Pa. – Kennedy DeMatteis and Rebecca Tatone combined on a two-hitter as Gannon staved off elimination in the PSAC Tournament with a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Cal in a game that can only be described as "wild".

Gannon advanced forward in the loser's bracket to meet Shippensburg, the No. 2 seed from the Eastern Division, but fell 6-5 in eight innings to the Raiders after another game full of back-and-forth drama and were eliminated from the 2022 tournament.

The Golden Knights' record moves to 19-18 on the season and the loss to Shippensburg was the first time the team played extra innings during the 2022 season.
 
GAME ONE: GANNON 3, CAL U 2
 
Kennedy DeMatteis (Boyers, Pa./Moniteau) threw the first six innings, allowing a pair of runs without the benefit of a hit. She proceeded to retire 17 straight Vulcans and Gannon scored twice in the bottom of the second and once in the third to take a 3-2 lead. DeMatteis walked just two batters, both in the first inning, while striking out three to improve to 9-9 on the season. It was her 49^th career victory, leaving her one shy of eighth place for career wins.
 
Rebecca Tatone (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) picked up her fourth save of the year and the seventh of her career. That ties her for the career record with Heather Loomis.
 
Gannon ended the morning with seven hits, with Kennedy DeMatteis going 2-for-3. The win came less than 24 hours after Gannon had suffered a heart-breaking 4-2 loss to East Stroudsburg in its opening tournament contest.  
 
The game started off in an ominous manner for DeMatties and the Golden Knights, as she battled wildness in the first inning. The first three Cal batters in the top of the first reached base on a hit by pitch and a pair of walks to load the bases. A groundout gave the Vulcans a 1-0 lead, and a wild pitch produced another run. But she battled her way out of the jam, ending the inning with a strikeout and a ground out.
 
Gannon tied the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the second thanks to a clutch two-out double by Abbey Girman. Megan Dietrick reached on a one-out single and Natalie Mallozzi followed with a double to put runners on second and third. Caleigh Ristor nearly got out of the inning with a groundout to third, but Girman followed with her two-run double.
 
The Golden Knights took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third thanks to wildness on Cal's part, along with some thievery on the base paths. Kristina DeMatteis walked, signaling the end of the day for Ristor. She moved up on a wild pitch, with Jules Ryan (Collegeville, Pa./Spring Ford) walking and DeMatteis stealing third in the process. Following a strikeout, Ryan stole second and Kennedy DeMatteis then helped her own cause with an RBI single to score her sister.
 
Kennedy DeMatteis, meanwhile, found her groove and retired 17 straight batters from the first inning on as Cal remained without a hit. She would reach base with her second single of the game leading off the bottom of the six. Sophia Buckberger pinch ran, marking her second exit for a pinch runner. Buckberger would advance to third but the Golden Knights were unable to score.
 
Tatone came in at the start of the seventh inning. While the inning got more than a little bit interesting, the senior closed out the win for her fourth save of the season. Kaitlyn Achtermeier reached base on a contested single over the second baseman to start the inning, the first Cal base hit and the first baserunner for the Vulcans since the first inning. Kelsey Barron followed with another base hit to put runners on first and second with no one out. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners up, but Tatone came up with a big strike out for the second out. When Dietrick made a diving catch in center to end the game, the Knight had completed the comeback.
 
GAME TWO: SHIPPENSBURG 6, GANNON 5 (8 INNINGS)
 
Shippensburg, the No. 2 seed from the East Division, wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard, putting up two runs in the top of the first thanks to a pair of singles, a walk, and two hit batsman. Kennedy DeMatteis (Boyers, Pa./Moniteau), getting the start in the circle for the third straight game, limited the damage to just those two runs after getting a pop-out and a strikeout to leave the bases loaded full of Raiders.
 
Gannon responded right away in the bottom half with a leadoff bunt single by Nicole Bush (Painesville, Ohio/Lake Catholic). Bush advanced to second on a passed ball and was promptly driven in by Jules Ryan (Collegeville, Pa./Spring Ford), who roped a single to center to make it a 2-1 game. Shippensburg took a 3-1 lead after Katelyn Minney reached on an error and scored an unearned run after a two-out throwing error.
 
Again, the Knights fought back in a big way. Bush again singled to lead off the bottom of the third inning and Kristina DeMatteis (Boyers, Pa./Moniteau) launched her sixth home run of the season to make it 3-3. Gannon took the lead in the fourth after Kennedy DeMatteis (Boyers, Pa./Moniteau) doubled to left center to put pinch-runner Olivia Evans (Horseheads, New York/Horseheads Senior High) in scoring position. Lea Coffman (Lower Burrell, Pa./Burrell) singled to right to drive in the run and put the Knights up 4-3.
 
The game remained like that until the top of the sixth, as the incredibly dangerous top of Shippensburg's lineup came to the plate. Two singles by Emma Mackulin and Hannah Marsteller put two runners on, and Morgan Lindsay came through with a two-run single to right center to give the Raiders the lead once again, 5-4. Gannon, always a fan of the dramatic, waited until its final three outs to tie the game. Coffman drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the seventh and advanced to third after Kristina DeMatteis (Boyers, Pa./Moniteau) nearly ended the game with a deep fly ball to right field that bounced off the fence back into play for a double and left runners on second and third.
 
An unfortunate ground ball from Jules Ryan (Collegeville, Pa./Spring Ford) allowed Ship to get the lead runner out, but DeMatteis did advance to third. One batter later, Natalia Mallozzi (Woodbridge, Ontario/Father Bressani Catholic) blooped a ball into no-man's land over the pitcher's head and in front of the shortstop, plating the tying run, making it a 5-5 game, and forcing extra innings.
 
It was once again the middle of the Shippensburg lineup that did the damage, though, with a leadoff single by Taylor Myers, a sacrifice bunt by Morgan DeFeo, and then an RBI double on a smash to left field by Marsteller (one of the best hitters in the entire PSAC, who ended the game hitting .507 with 17 home runs and 51 RBIs) to take a 6-5 lead.
 
Gannon looked likely to tie up the game again in the bottom of the eighth, with Megan Dietrick (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) stroking a leadoff single to center field and a sac bunt from Kennedy DeMatteis (Boyers, Pa./Moniteau) putting Dietrick in scoring position, but the final two batters were retired by Shippensburg reliever Emma Flattery to end the game.