Game 1 boxscore
Game 2 boxscore

ERIE, Pa.—The Slippery Rock University softball team split a doubleheader Tuesday afternoon at Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division rival Gannon, but nonetheless moved into a third for third place in the division standings.

Home runs by freshman right fielder Jenna Geibel and sophomore shortstop Kirsten Brant accounted for all The Rock runs in a 3-2 second-game win Tuesday after the hosting Golden Knights eked out a 1-0 win in the first game.

The split, coupled with division-leading California's doubleheader sweep Tuesday of Mercyhurst, gave The Rock (22-17 overall) and Mercyhurst (19-7) identical 5-7 records in division competition heading into Wednesday's 2:30 p.m. head-to-head meeting in Slippery Rock.

Wednesday's twinbill will go a long ways towards determining if Slippery Rock and/or Mercyhurst earn one of the three PSAC playoff berths that will be awarded to a PSAC-West team.

California sits atop the PSAC-West standings with an 11-1 division record, followed by Edinboro at 7-5 and SRU and Mercyhurst each at 5-7.

The Rock seeks a second straight trip to the conference tournament.

Tuesday's games

Gannon (16-19, 2-10) scored the lone run of Tuesday's first game in the bottom of the sixth inning on the strength of a double by Katie Killian and a sacrifice fly by Sam Scott.

SRU, which outhit the hosts by a 6-2 margin, had a chance to tie and possibly win the game in the top of the seventh as it had runners on second and third bases when the final out was recorded.

Sophomore Shaylee Ianno was The Rock's starting and hard-luck losing pitcher. She struck out seven batters in the process of recording her third complete game of the season but saw her record drop to 5-4.

Geibel smacked her 10th home run of the season two batters after Brant had slapped a leadoff single to open the second game and, in the process, gave SRU a 2-0 lead it would not relinquish.

Two innings later, Brant clobbered her seventh roundtripper of the season to give SRU a 3-0 advantage and ultimately account for the winning run.

Gannon got one run in the bottom of the fourth and a second tally in the sixth to trim the final margin to one run.

Junior Shauna Walker improved her season record to 11-3 with her seventh complete-game pitching effort of the season. She allowed four hits, struck out five and walked one.

Note: Geibel's home run moved her into fifth place on SRU's career HR list and into third place on the single-season circuit clout chart ... Wednesday's games will be part of a "Senior Day" event in which four Rock seniors (first baseman Sheree Horvath, catcher Jessica Kortz, outfielder Kendra Kutz and second baseman Whitney Warmus) will be honored prior to their final home appearance of the season ... The Rock closes out its regular-season schedule with a doubleheader Friday at division-leading California.