SELINSGROVE, Pa.- The Juniata softball team earned a split on the road at Susquehanna University, winning 5-4 before falling 7-4 in game two, Tuesday afternoon at Sassafras Field.
Alex Douglass went 3-4 with a stolen base and a run scored, while Caleigh Love was 2-3 with four RBI and a double. Maryn Swank got the win in game one, going the distance, allowing four runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts over seven innings of work.
Swank carved through the River Hawk lineup over the first four innings, allowing just two to reach safely, one on a walk in the first and the other on a single in the third.
The Eagles struggled to get much going with their bats, managing two hits through the first four innings, but the offense came to life in the fifth. Claire Thomas led off with a double to left. Reagan Goldsmith came in to pinch run and got to third on Morgan Brumbaugh's sacrifice bunt. Love singled through the left side to score Goldsmith, and JC led 1-0.
In the sixth inning, Juniata scored four runs on five hits, highlighted by Love's base-clearing double down the right-field line, which made it 5-0.
The River Hawks got two back in the sixth on a two-run blast to left, and a two-run double with two outs in the seventh cut the Eagle lead to one. Swank walked the next batter to put runners at first and second but got the final out on a fly out to right to end the game.
Game two saw both teams score in the first, as Douglass got home on a throwing error while SU scored on a sacrifice fly.
Juniata got two more runs in the fourth on back-to-back doubles from Love and Dani Berlin to make it 3-1 before the River Hawks answered with an RBI single to right in the bottom half of the inning.
Thomas drove in Douglass to double the JC lead again, but Susquehanna put up a five spot in the bottom half of the fifth to take their first lead of the game, 7-4.
Juniata couldn't manufacture any more runs as SU took game two.
The Eagles will host Moravian on Saturday at 1:00.
