WHITTIER, Calif. – Esme Song and Bryanna Schaffer each had four hits on the day, but the Carleton College softball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader at Whittier College, falling 6-5 and 7-3.
 
Game 1 — Whittier 6, Carleton 5
The Knights (3-7) held a trio of leads in the opener — 1-0, 4-1, and 5-4 — before the Poets (12-9) notched the comeback victory.
 
Carleton grabbed the early lead as Song singled with one out in the top of the first and raced home on Adrianna Wiggins' single to left center.
 
After Whittier plated an unearned run in the bottom of the second, Song singled to start the top of the third inning and eventually scored on Rachel Block's base hit.
 
The Knights widened their lead in the fourth. Livi Peters opened the rally with a double, Samantha Rodriguez followed with a single, and Megan Smith chased home the first run with an RBI grounder. Song's third hit of the contest advanced Smith into scoring position, and the latter scored soon after on a Poets' error. Whittier answered with a trio of two-out runs in the bottom of the fourth to knot the score at 4-4.
 
Song's career-best fourth hit of the game scored Smith with a two-out tally in the top of the sixth, but the hosts responded with a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the frame and held on for the 6-5 victory.
 
In addition to Song's four-hit contest, Peters and Rodriguez both had multi-hit games.
 
Block (2-4) tossed her third complete game of the trip but took the loss for Carleton, permitting five earned runs on 11 hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
 
Game 2 – Whittier 7, Carleton 3
The Poets scored twice in the second inning and five more times in the third, but six of the runs were unearned.
 
The Knights got on the board in the top of the fourth as Schaffer's leadoff double was followed one out later by Peters' RBI double.
 
Grace Colburn homered to start the fifth inning, and Schaffer added an RBI single later in the frame to conclude the scoring. It was Colburn's first long ball of the season and the second of her collegiate career.
 
Schaffer finished 3-for-3 with two doubles.
 
Abby Gooch got the starting nod for the Knights, making her collegiate debut on the rubber. She worked 1.2 innings but took the loss after permitting two runs (one earned) on a hit and two walks. Becca Madsen contributed 2.0 scoreless innings of relief, and Alissa Maquar added a hitless inning out of the pen in what was her first collegiate pitching appearance.
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton visits California Lutheran for a 1:00 p.m. PDT / 3:00 p.m. CDT doubleheader on Tuesday, March 25.