CALIFORNIA, Pa. - The University of Charleston Softball team took advantage of their first NCAA Tournament appearance by defeating Gannon 3-2 Friday afternoon in the opening round at Lilley Field on the campus of California University of Pennsylvania.

Courtney Fain picked up her 19th win of the season pitching six innings while allowing two runs on five Golden Knight hits.  Jessie Rowe relieved Fain in the seventh inning to pick up the save for the Golden Eagles.  

Charleston pounded out eight hits on the day off Gannon starter Jess Rectenwald and reliever Olivia Gumbita to score their three runs. Ayla Santos and Cortney Norris both went 2-for-2 from the plate pace the Golden Eagle hitting attack with Santos, Kelly Browning and Katelyn Hamilton each driving in a run.

All three of Charleston's runs were scored in the third after falling behind 1-0 after the Golden Knights plated a single run to start the top half of the third.  Norris reached on an infield single to start UC's three-run inning.  After advancing to second on a groundout by Bethany Williams, Kelly Browning drove in Norris on a double over the left fielder's head to even the game at 1-1.  Santos smoked a hard shot to the short stop that bounced off her shoulder and made its way to the outfield that brought around Browning who beat the throw home to make it 2-1 with Charleston on top.  Hamilton followed Santos with a line drive to the left field that scored Santos from second before being thrown out at a close pay at third, but still gave UC a 3-1 lead after the third.

Fain controlled the Golden Knights bats most of the afternoon but ran into trouble in the 7th, so Coach Loeser made a move to freshman reliever Jessie Rowe to close out the game.  Rowe inherited a runner on second with nobody out in the innning.  Rowe struck out her first batter then got the next to ground out leaving one out left between UC and their first NCAA Tournament victory.  Rectenwald doubled to left center to score a run and trim the Golden Eagle lead to 3-2 with two outs. Jackie Martinez stepped to the plate for Gannon and hit a sharp ground ball to Andrea Hayes at shortstop who fielded it cleanly and fired a dart over to Norris to give Charleston the dramatic 3-2 win.

The win puts Charleston into tomorrow's second round to face host California University of Pennsylvania at 10:30 a.m.