WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Juniata baseball team dropped a couple heartbreakers on Sunday afternoon, losing to Catholic 7-6 in the first game of the day before falling in extra innings in game two, going down 5-4 in the bottom of the tenth. The results mean Catholic sweeps the season series against the Eagles, with Juniata falling to 6-14 on the season and 1-7 in the Landmark Conference.
Game one was a back-and-forth affair, with two lead changes and two different ties over the course of the game. Catholic jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but the Eagles answered back with three runs in the top of the second. Dakotah Snyder (Lewisburg, Pa / Lewisburg) opened the inning by reaching on a walk, before back-to-back singles from Joey Woodrow (Gibsonia, Pa. / Pine-Richland) and Corey Daniels (Vandling, Pa. / Forest City Regional) brought Snyder home, with a fielding error allowing Woodrow to score and Daniels to reach third on his hit. Daniels then dashed down the line to score on a passed ball before the Cardinals were able to stop the bleeding. Juniata resumed their scoring in the top of the third, with Aaron Bollinger (Millerstown, Pa. / Greenwood) leading off with a single before Isaac Maclay (Belleville, Pa. / Mifflin County) came to the plate and launched a two-run homer over the left field fence. Momentum swung in the fifth when the Eagles ended the top of the inning by leaving the bases loaded. The Cardinals jumped on the opportunity to respond and scored three runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 5-5. They added another in the sixth to take the lead. Juniata tied things at 6 when Woodrow singled before coming home to score in the top of the eighth, but again they could not hold on to the lead. A walk put a Catholic runner on base to start the bottom of the eighth before a bunt, a second walk, and two straight fielding errors from Juniata allowed that runner to score what would become the winning run. Reliever Jack Dovidio (Glenmore, Pa. / Downington West) ended with the loss despite allowing only one hit in his 2.2 innings of work, with those two late walks proving to be costly.
Game two saw both teams turn in much more muted offensive performances, with Catholic having only seven hits in the game while Juniata had six. Jack Johnson (Alexandria, Pa. / Juniata Valley) started the game for the Eagles, tossing three scoreless innings before Catholic broke through with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. After that, Luke Pastor (Camp Hill, Pa. / Trinity) entered the game to pitch for Juniata and tossed four shutout innings, striking out three batters along the way. The Eagles clawed back into the game in the top of the ninth, with Joey Allegrini (Hershey, Pa. / Hershey) continuing his clutch hitting season by slapping a two-RBI double to left center to tie the game. The game went into an extra frame after both teams failed to score in the ninth, and the bottom of the tenth saw the Eagles dealt a second straight one-run loss, this time by a walk-off RBI single.
Juniata will return home for a short home-stand this week, hosting Penn College for a doubleheader on Wednesday, April 6th, before welcoming Landmark opponent Elizabethtown for a three-game series, beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday the 9th at noon.
