Strong Pitching Helps Baseball Earn Sweep
(Posted April 15, 2006)
Juniata 6, Elizabethtown 2
Juniata 6, Elizabethtown 1
HUNTINGDON, Pa. - The Juniata College baseball team got complete-game victories from Cody Zong (Lewistown/McVeytown) and Andrew Snyder (Punxsutawney/Punxsutawney) to claim a doubleheader sweep of visiting Elizabethtown College in Commonwealth Conference action Saturday. Juniata won game one 6-2, and claimed a 6-1 win in game two to improve to 18-8-1 overall and 11-3-1 in conference play on the year. Elizabethtown fell to 15-11-1 with the losses and is now 9-6 in the conference.
Zong went all seven innings to earn his fifth victory of the year in game one, while Snyder tossed his second complete game of the season while holding the visitors to just four hits in game two.
After a scoreless first inning in the first contest Juniata would score at least once in every inning en route to the 6-2 win. Steven Wilk (Blairsville/Hollidaysburg) drew a bases-loaded walk in the second inning to bring home Juniata's first run, and the Eagles quickly added one more in the third when Dan Kauffman (Penn Manor/Conestoga) launched his 10th home run of the season to make the score 2-0 Eagles. Wilk followed with a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the fourth to extend the lead to 3-0.
Juniata pushed across two more in the bottom of the fifth as Will Russell (Tyrone/Tyrone) delivered an RBI double, and Zach Sternberg (McCaskey/Lancaster) followed with a run-scoring single, making the lead 5-0.
Elizabethtown finally broke through against Zong in the top of the sixth as Brandon Watson delivered a two-RBI double that made the score 5-2. With two runners still on base Jared Morris lined into a double-play to end the threat. Those were the only runs that came in off Zong as he scattered eight hits while fanning three over seven innings.
The Eagles would add an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth as an infield error scored Troy Beaver (Bellwood-Antis/Bellwood) to extend the lead to 6-2. All six runs were charged to Blue Jays starter Scott Beard who went 5 1-3 innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits, with seven strikeouts.
Sternberg led the Eagles with two hits in the game, with Wilk adding one hit and two RBI, and Kauffman posting one hit with two runs scored.
Game two belonged to Snyder as the sophomore held Elizabethtown scoreless through six innings and allowed just four hits while striking out four.
Juniata gave Snyder all the support he needed in the second when the Eagles pushed across four runs on four hits. Shawn McDonald (Bishop Canevin/Gibsonia) delivered a bases-loaded double to plate the first two runs, and Beaver followed with a single that brought in two more runs. Juniata added another in the third when Russell doubled with one out and scored on an RBI single from Wilk. Russell scored the Eagles final run when he doubled with two out in the fifth and came home on a Jesse Leonard (Shade/Johnstown) RBI base hit.
Elizabethtown scored its lone run in the top of the seventh when Ryan White singled home Watson to make the score 6-1.
Sam Heaps went the distance for Elizabethtown as he surrendered six runs, five earned, on 11 hits over six innings, and struck out five.
Beaver, Russell, Wilk and Darren Hake (Red Lion/Red Lion) all had two hits for Juniata in the game. Hake scored three runs while Beaver drove in a pair. Adam Sheibley had two of Elizabethtown's four hits in the contest.
Juniata returns to action on Tuesday with a non-conference doubleheader against Division II Indiana University (Pa.).
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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.