WASHINGTON, DC—The Juniata baseball team suffered a heartbreaker in the nation's capital on Sunday afternoon, losing 5-4 in extra innings.
Dakotah Snyder opened the game by battling out of an 0-2 hole to draw a walk. Two batters later, Corey Daniels pushed him to second as he grounded out to the pitcher. Joey Woodrow sent him home from second on an RBI single to right to give JC a 1-0 lead.
Derek Gehr was locked in through three innings, as he didn't allow a hit.
JC added three runs to their lead in quick succession. In the top of the fourth, Michael Warren smacked a homer down the rightfield line, Zach Johnston drew a walk, and Tim Coleman homered down the leftfield line. Catholic got one back in the bottom half of the inning on a solo homer to left center.
The Cardinals added two runs on three hits in the seventh to get within one, and an error allowed them to score in the eighth to tie the game up. Ari Lonstein got Juniata out of a jam, entering with a runner at first. The first batter was intentionally walked, he got the next batter to pop up to second, hit the next batter to load the bases but struck out the next one to get out of the inning.
The teams traded zeros in the ninth. Johnston doubled with one out in the 10th, but JC couldn't get him home. In the bottom half of the inning, Lonstein escaped again, this time the bases loaded with one out. Catholic tried to execute a squeeze, but the ball popped up, so he snared it out of the air and flipped it to third for the double play to end the inning.
Juniata had a chance to score in the 11th as Snyder was hit by a pitch and got to third as Daniels reached safely on an error by the shortstop, but a strikeout ended the inning.
The Cardinals loaded the bases again with a hit by pitch, an intentional walk, and a walk, with a sacrifice fly ending the game 5-4.
The Eagles return to action Tuesday at home against Lycoming at 3:00.
