WINTER HAVEN, FL- The Juniata baseball team played Cazenovia in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday morning at Chain of Lakes Park. The Eagles jumped on the Wildcats early and held of a Cazenovia rally in the bottom of the seventh for an 8-6 win in the first game.
Anthony Lombardo's (Altoona, PA/Altoona Area) two RBI single in the first inning gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead. With runners at second and third and no outs, Eric Grace (Hopewell, PA/Northern Bedford) laced a double to plate another two runs and put JC ahead 4-0.
In the Cazenovia half of the inning, the Wildcats' Dan Colburn led off with a triple and scored on Brett Baker's double. Chris Schad then walked and advanced to second on a passed ball, which put Baker on third. Juniata starter Chris Fulton (West Chester, PA/Unionville) got out of the jam by getting a fly out, strike out and groundout to end the Cazenovia threat.
The Wildcats scored in the bottom of the second to make it 4-2. Juniata got the run back in the top of the third to go ahead 5-2.
It was a 6-4 game heading into the seventh inning. Grace led off the top of the seventh with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After David DeFreest (Duxbury, VT/Harwood Union) struck out and Kyle Pannebaker (Thompsontown, PA/East Juniata) flied out, Joe Klusman (Wilmington, DE/St. Elizabeth) singled to score Grace and JC led 7-4. With the bases loaded, Chris Sinisi (Altoona, PA/Altoona) was hit by a pitch to bring in Klusman. The inning ended on Andre Pendleton's(Penn Valley, PA/Harriton) groundout to second.
Colburn led off the bottom of the seventh with a double and moved to third on Baker's sacrifice fly. A balk was called on Eagle pitcher Wayne Hydak (Northern Versailles, PA/Serra) and that scored Colburn. Schad then hit a homerun to make it 8-6. That is where the threat ended as Hydak induced a lineout and a fly out to secure the win for the Eagles.
Fulton went four innings and surrendered two hits and two runs (one earned). He walked four and struck out four. Hydak went three innings and gave up seven hits, four earned runs and one walk.
Sinisi went 2-for-4 at the plate with one run and one RBI. Grace was 1-for-3 with a double, one run scored, and two RBIs. Lombardo finished 1-for-4 with one run scored and two RBIs.
In the second game, Juniata led going into the seventh inning, but Cazenovia scored twice to come away with a 4-3 win. The Eagles were held to five total hits.
The game was scoreless heading into the bottom of the second inning. With runners on first and second and one out, Zach Tobash (Macungie, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) singled and advanced to second on an error which allowed Grace and Brady Cotler (Chadds Ford, PA/Salesianum) to score and give the Eagles a 2-0 lead.
The Wildcats got both of the runs back in the third and tie the game at 2-2. Juniata scored once in the fifth on Chris Schreder's (Lititz, PA/Lancaster Catholic) RBI single that scored Pendleton to take a 3-2 advantage.
Mike Maraka's two RBI single gave Cazenovia the lead back, 4-3, in the seventh. Juniata went down 1-2-3 and Wildcats walked away with the win.
Jesse Beeler (Greencastle, PA/Greencastle-Antrim) pitched five innings and gave up six hits, two runs, (one earned), and struck out seven. Cotler went two innings and gave up three hits, two earned runs, one walk, and fanned one.
The Eagles are back in action tomorrow with a doubleheader against Waynesburg. Game 1 will start at 1:30 p.m. with the second game immediately following.
