GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Juniata College softball team squared off against former Commonwealth Conference rival Messiah College on Tuesday afternoon in Grantham, Pa., and Juniata took a split out the twinbill against the former league nemesis. Juniata won the first game 4-2, but Messiah bounced back to take a 6-4 victory in the nightcap.

In the first game, Juniata (15-14) scored one run in the first inning when Tara Carl (Duke Center, Pa./Otto-Eldred) scored on Rachel Nagy's (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth) fielder's choice grounder to third, which caught Stacy Nagy (Millerton, Pa./Troy) in a run-down.

The Eagles put up three more runs on Messiah in the sixth inning, with Carl opening the frame with a double and scoring on Stacy Nagy's fly ball to right field which was mishandled by Messiah's Rebecca Stackhouse. Rachel Nagy then got aboard with a single, followed by Liz Schmitt (Knoxville, Tenn./H. Frank Carey, N.Y.) who reached on a hit-by-pitch. Rachel Nagy was eventually forced home on a walk issued to Jackie Morley (North Wales, Pa./Archbishop Wood), while Schmitt crossed on a passed ball.

Eagle starter Alyssa Erb (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg) pitched Juniata to the complete game victory, fanning eight Falcon batters while scattering three hits on her way to the win.

All Juniata's offense in game two came off the bat of Rachel Nagy, who belted two-run home runs in the first and fifth innings.

Pam Mansell (Centre Hall, Pa./Penns Valley) started in the circle for Juniata, and lasted into the fifth inning before she was lifted in favor of Stacy Nagy. Nagy struck out two of the four batters she faced in the fifth and sixth innings.

Juniata will face Susquehanna University on Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. on Weis Field in Huntingdon.

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