(Posted April 16, 2008)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The Juniata College softball team put up five runs in the first two innings of game two on its way to a 5-2 win over Susquehanna University, to carry a split out of its Landmark Conference doubleheader against the Crusaders on Wednesday afternoon at Weis Field in Huntingdon, Pa. Juniata dropped the first game to Susquehanna by a 1-0 score, with the game's only run coming on a solo home run by the Crusaders' Megan McCurley with one out in the fourth inning. The Eagles (16-15, 3-7 Landmark) had a runner advance past second base just once in the game; that came in the bottom of the fourth when Rachel Nagy (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth) reached with a lead-off double, and advanced to third on Liz Schmitt's (Knoxville, Tenn./H. Frank Carey, N.Y.) grounder to third base. Crusader pitcher Bekah Bennett managed to get Juniata's Caley McCool (Spring Mills, Pa./Penns Valley) to ground out to second and Jackie Morley (North Wales, Pa./Archbishop Wood) to hit a pop-fly to first base, ending the Eagle threat. Bennett picked up the win in four-and-two-thirds innings of work, before being lifted in the fifth for Cara Swerdlow. The two allowed a total of seven hits with two walks and just four strikeouts. Juniata starter Alyssa Erb (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg) fanned five Crusaders and scattered four hits, but yielded the home run to McCurley and was charged with the loss. In game two, the Eagles opened with a three-run first inning, keyed by Rachel Nagy's two-run single that scored Tara Carl (Duke Center, Pa./Otto-Eldred) and Sarah Eckard (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg). McCool belted a double later in the inning, driving in Nagy. The Eagles plated two more runs in the second on a two-run, two-out single down the right field line by Rachel Nagy, allowing Eckard and Melissa Moffat (Oceanside, Calif./Oceanside) to score. Susquehanna answered with its only offense in the first, on a Kelli Holota RBI-double that scored Danielle McCann, and in the second when a Bryn Whitmire single allowed Laurie Blaszka to score. Juniata righthander Pam Mansell (Centre Hall, Pa./Penns Valley) went three-and-a-third innings in the circle, allowing one earned run on five hits with one strikeout. Erb came on in the fourth inning in relief, striking out six of the 12 batters she faced and picking up the win. Juniata will face McDaniel College in a non-conference doubleheader on Friday, April 18, at 3:00 p.m. in Westminster, Md. -30-

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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.