(Posted April 18, 2009)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Juniata College bounced back from a game one loss to take a 5-4 victory off the University of Scranton in the second game of the teams' Landmark Conference baseball doubleheader, Saturday afternoon at Langdon-Goodale Field in Huntingdon. The Eagles dropped the opener to the Royals, 16-5.

Juniata (11-16, 4-10 Landmark) tied the game at 1-1 in the fifth inning, when Ian Thorne (Germantown, Md./Seneca Valley) doubled home Greg Hoffman (Phoenix, Md./Dulaney), who reached with a lead off single through the left side. Scranton scored its single run in the first inning.

The Eagles took the lead with a four-run sixth inning, taking advantage of a pair of hits and two Scranton errors. Hoffman plated one run on a RBI single, while Thorne forced another run across when he drew a bases loaded walk.

Scranton rallied with three runs in the top of the seventh, before Juniata reliever Michael McGonigal (Peters Township, Pa./Peters Township) could end the threat. The Royals opened the frame with three straight doubles, including a two-run double by Charles Comprelli. With one out, McGonigal coaxed Scranton's Justin Champagne to pop up to Eagle first baseman John Martinez (Mount Union, Pa./Mount Union) in foul territory, and then struck out the Royals' Greg Zambrella looking, to finally get out of the inning.

Hoffman and Dane Ott (South Williamsport, Pa./South Williamsport) each went 2-for-3 at the plate, with Hoffman scoring twice to go with his RBI.

Juniata starter John Love (Loysburg, Pa./Northern Bedford) picked up his second win of the season, despite allowing four earned runs on seven hits over 6.0 innings of work. McGonigal picked up a save, after coming on to face the fourth batter in the seventh inning.

Scranton starter Todd McGee took the loss, after yielding five runs, only two of which were earned, on seven hits.

In the first game, Scranton expanded on its 1-0 first inning lead with six runs in the top of the second, and added runs in three of the following four innings.

David Giglio's two-run single was the big hit of the second inning, in a frame where the Royals manufactured runs on three hits, a Juniata error, one hit batsman, a walk, and a sacrifice fly.

Juniata cut the Scranton lead nearly in half with two runs in the bottom of the second, and a single run in the bottom of the third. Matt Sullivan (Elizabethtown, Pa./Elizabethtown) doubled down the right field line in the second to score Andrew Kriss (Forest Hill, Md./John Carroll) and Adam Spadafora (Asbury, N.J./Pennington School) plated Kyle Saxman (York, Pa./York Suburban) with an RBI single for Juniata's runs in the second inning. A Saxman single to right center scored Hoffman in the third.

Juniata tacked on a single run in the fourth inning, when Spadafora reached on a double and scored on a passed ball, and again in the sixth inning, when Ott's fielder's choice grounder to short allowed Spadafora to score.

Scranton went on to add two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, before a five-run outburst in the fifth gave the Royals a commanding 16-4 lead. Chris Psihoules hit a two-run home run for the Royals in the sixth.

Spadafora scored twice and finished 3-for-4 at the plate for his 10th multiple hit game of the season, while Kriss and Saxman each went 2-for-3.

Juniata starter Tyler Clifford (Homer City, Pa./Homer City) took the loss to drop his record to 4-3, while Scranton starter Kyle Fox picked up the complete game win to improve to 4-5.

Juniata and Scranton will complete their three-game Landmark Conference series on Sunday, April 19 at 12:00 p.m. on Langdon-Goodale Field.

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