HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Springfest is over; Major Event has come and gone; Pig Roast flew by… no one wants to think about finals; let alone if you're graduating! So what is left of the 2010 spring semester? 

Just look towards the southeast corner of campus and you can still hear the ping of a bat and the pounding of a mitt. Yup, baseball and softball are still alive! All you had to do look at any of the Juniata College baseball team's newly grown mustaches to realize it must be playoff time.

Both squads will be traveling to Moravian College to take part in its respective sport's Landmark Conference Tournament, starting on Friday, May 7.

Here is what to expect:

Softball Preview: 

The fourth seeded softball team is coming in winners of six of its last seven games, including a 5-2 victory of the second seeded Susquehanna University. They are 19-16 overall and finished with an even 6-6 record in the Landmark Conference. They scare off against the top seed and host Moravian in the first game of the double-elimination tournament at 11 a.m. 

The team leads the conference in batting, hitting a whopping .336 as a whole, 28 points higher than the second place team. They also field it particularly well, cleanly gloving any batted balls at a .951 clip, good enough for third in the conference.

Eckard leads the entire conference in hits, totaling 49 on the year so far. She is also third in the conference in runs, crossing the plate 37 times and eighth in the Landmark with a .389 batting average from the leadoff position. Eckard sits atop the career leader board in multiple categories for the Eagles. She has the most at-bats (450), runs scored (118) and hits (172).

Rachel Nagy is in the top five in a host of different categories in the conference. She is fourth in batting average, hitting at a .421 clip. She is also fourth in hits with 45 and fourth in doubles with 12. Her 63 total bases rank her fifth in the Landmark. She is also Juniata's career leader in doubles with 40 all time. 

McCool has been solid offensively and defensively all season for the Eagles, but her current eight game-hitting streak has helped her jump up the leader boards in the conference as well. She is currently fourth in on base percentage (.456), and fifth in batting average (.410) and hits (43). 

The pitching staff has been depleted due to injury most of the season, but that hasn't stopped Alyssa Erb (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg) and Stacy Nagy (Millerton, Pa./Troy) from leading their team back to the playoffs for the second year in a row.

When Erb went to the DL, Stacy Nagy had to put her everyday starting spot at shortstop on hold to help stop the bleeding, and perform inside the circle. 

For the year, Nagy is only 7-9 when toeing the rubber, but more importantly she stepped up at a position that was most notably vacant. She has pitched 94.2 innings this year. She has recently gone back to her day-to-day duties as a shortstop, and still had time to hit nine doubles, good enough for seventh in the conference. She is batting .500 on the year (30 for 60) but she does not have the minimum plate appearances per game to be counted in the conference rankings. 

Even with taking a number of games after the injury, Erb has a record of 12-7 this year, striking out 125 batters. Her numbers all-time show that she is one of the best pitchers to come through Juniata. She holds the record for lowest opponent batting average (.225), strikeouts per game (7.43), wins (52), saves (4), shutouts (15), innings pitched (545.2), and strikeouts (579) among other categories.

When the Eagles took on the perennial powerhouse Greyhounds in the regular season, they did extremely well. In game one, they trailed by one going into the sixth before Moravian tacked on another run to win 3-1. Game two saw the Eagles up 3-0 after the first half inning, but the Greyhounds used a pair of five run innings later in the game to sweep the doubleheader 10-3. 

The Eagles split their doubleheader series in the regular season against Susquehanna and Scranton, the other team teams in the tournament. When healthy, the Eagles can hang with anyone, and it's a perfect time for the team to reach its full health.

Baseball Preview:

Just across a cart path on Moravian's campus will be the baseball team, taking on the same Greyhounds in the opener of the baseball tournament. The Eagles were able to sneak into the playoffs following a series win against the University of Scranton on the last weekend of the regular season. Juniata took games two and three from the Royals, to beat them into the fourth and final playoff spot.

The offense has not been an issue all season for the Eagles, batting .313 as a team, which puts them in second in the Landmark. But it has been the pitching that has failed them at times this season, as they find themselves with a 7.84 team ERA. But the staff has picked it up tremendously over the last three conference weekends, enabling them for the playoff push.

Leading the Eagles offense has been Andrew Kriss (Forest Hill, Md./John Carroll), Greg Hoffman (Phoenix, Md./Dulaney), and Johnny Martinez (Mt. Union, Pa./Mt. Union).

Kriss has been "Mr. Everything" this season for the Eagles at the dish. Coming into the playoffs, he ranks first in hits (64), first in batting average (.441), second in triples (3), third in doubles (13) and fifth in runs (37) in the Landmark Conference. He is currently second in most hits in a single season, nine behind Adam Spadafora who had 73 in 2008. He is also second for best batting average in a season, again behind Spadafora who hit at a .465 clip in 2008. He currently has a five game hitting streak, but has had a team high 17 game hitting streak earlier in the season while playing every inning of every game at shortstop.

Hoffman has been the rock behind the plate for the Eagles all season…heck, all four years of his illustrious career.  He's enjoying his best offensive season as a senior, hitting .339 on the year while driving in 40 runs, second best in conference. Hoffman has the most multiple RBI games on the team, driving in more than one runner in 11 different games. He is coming off a game against the Royals where he went 5 for 6 with two RBI's and three runs scored.

Martinez has come on strong in the second half of the season, raising his batting average up to .407 by the end of the regular season. That puts him at fifth in the conference. He is a stat sheet stuffer as he is in the top ten in the Landmark in multiple categories. He is fourth with a .490 on base percentage, fifth in hits (48), and seventh in slugging (.585) and runs scored (34).

On the hill for the Eagles, Tyler Clifford (Homer City, Pa./Homer Center), Matt Regan (Downingtown, Pa./Devon Prep) and John Love (Loysburg, Pa./Northern Bedford) will see a majority of the action as they have all season in conference games. 

Regan has been the most impressive lately, throwing a complete game two hitter in his last outing; a 5-4 must win in game two over Scranton. He has the lowest opponents batting average in the Landmark, only allowing other hitters a .236 average against him. He has also allowed the fewest amount of hits as a starter in the league, giving up only 37. He is also second in strikeouts, posting 48 K's on the season. His 3.74 ERA is third among starters as well.

The Eagles lost two of three to the Greyhounds back on the opening weekend of the conference schedule, but had a lead all the way through game one before a late surge by Moravian won the game, 7-5.

They were swept by Catholic in the regular season, and lost two of three against Susquehanna, the other two teams in the tournament. Again, the Eagles were within striking distance in multiple games against all three teams; so don't be surprised to see an upset or two from the fourth seed in the tournament.

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