JOHNSTOWN, PA – Consider this a proper Sunday response. After dropping two straight on Friday to IUP, Gannon broke out the bats in a twin bill against UPJ, winning both games by shutouts, 10-0 and 9-0. The Golden Knights now sit 3-3 in conference play and improve to 5-4 on the road. They'll take a 12-10 overall record into a home doubleheader on Tuesday against Slippery Rock.
GAME 1
It took just four batters for GU to put a run on the board. Lindsay Breuer roped a double to left center that brought Emma Smerick (Ford City, Pa./Armstrong) home and moved Jenna Clontz (Kittanning, Pa./Armstrong) to third. Kloie Troutman (Lorain, Ohio/Elyria) followed with an RBI to right, scoring Clontz, and Gannon was up 2-0 after just half an inning.
Maggie Lenda (East Aurora, N.Y./Iroquois) shut the door from there. The right hander was splendid in the circle, throwing all five innings and not allowing a run nor a walk. Her three strikeouts and three hits allowed paved the way to her third win of the season as she kept the UPJ hitters at bay.
She didn't need it, but Lenda got more run support in the fourth. With the bags full, Smerick punched a ball up the middle that scored two, doubling the GU lead. The next hitter would reach base, bringing up Clontz with the bases still loaded. Clontz wasted no time, blasting a fastball well over the wall for a grand slam to boost the Gannon lead to 8-0. It was her third homer of the season.
More came from the Golden Knights in the fifth, when Sadie Carroll (North Canton, Ohio/North Canton Hoover) took the first pitch she saw into center field for an RBI. Breuer followed later in the frame with her second RBI of the afternoon, putting GU in double figures and ending the game in the bottom of the frame when Lenda retired the Mountain Cats without a run.
Eight of nine Gannon batters collected a hit in the game, with five of those notching at least one RBI. Carroll added a stolen base in the contest.
GAME 2
It took just three pitches for Gannon to pick up where they left off in game one. Down 0-2 in the count, Emma Smerick (Ford City, Pa./Armstrong) lifted a fastball out of the yard in left. Her third home run of the year was the first of what would be a three-hit day for her. The Golden Knights would add another run in the inning when Troutman got a run home after grounding out to third.
2-0 became 3-0 in the third on another RBI groundout, this time from Breuer. That brought back up Troutman, who earned her second RBI of the game on a single up the middle. GU kept the pressure on in the fourth. Smerick laced a single that scored Alaina Whipkey (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) and advanced to second on the throw. She'd score on the next at bat, as Carroll crushed a double to left center on the second pitch she saw. One final RBI single from Breuer, and Gannon took a 7-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth.
Like Lenda in game one, Katie Armstrong (Lower Burrell, Pa./Burrell) had no trouble maneuvering through the UPJ lineup in the second game. The righty went the distance (6 IP), allowing just three hits and striking out seven. Not yielding any runs, Armstrong improved her record to 8-2 on the season in a 98-pitch outing.
Smerick kept the scoring parade going in the sixth, hitting a triple to right to plate a run. Smerick ended game two just a double shy of the cycle. Carroll concluded the rally with an RBI groundout, and GU earned yet another shutout, this one a 9-0 final.
