Eagles Edge Out Wildcats 7-6

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – With two on and one out in the bottom of the ninth, the Juniata baseball team held on to take a 7-6 victory over Penn College Tuesday afternoon.

David DeFreest (Duxburry, Vt. / Harwood Union) earned his first career save as he quickly retired two Wildcats. DeFreest relieved winning pitcher Ichiro Narita (Brooklyn, N.Y. / Brooklyn Latin), who tossed 1.1 innings and recorded two strikeouts. The win over Penn College is the first career win on the mound for Narita. 

Juniata jumped ahead of the Wildcats early with a big five-run inning in the second. Isaac Kline (Everett, Pa. / Bedford) led off with a bunt-single. Back-to-back singles from Chris Schreder (Lititz, Pa. / Lancaster Catholic) and DeFreest loaded the bases for Devyn Carper (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona Area). Carper would get hit by a pitch to bring in the first run for the Eagles. A passed ball brought in Schreder before Chris Sinisi (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona Area) singled to reload the bases. Sinisi finished the game going 3-for-4 to lead the offense.

The Eagles would bring in one more on a wild pitch before Penn College would record their first out of the inning.

Nick Stubbs (Hagerstown, Md. / South Hagerstown) ripped a single out to right field to knock in Sinisi and Carper. The Wildcats got out of the inning following a pitching change and picked up one run in the bottom half of the inning to make it 5-1 Juniata in the top of the third. 

Joe Klusman (Wilmington, Del. / St. Elizabeth) led off the inning with a single up the middle. A single through the left side from Kline advanced Klusman to second. One out later, an RBI-double from DeFreest made it 6-1 Juniata. 

The Wildcats put up three runs in the bottom half of the third to make it 6-4 JC.

Penn and Juniata remained locked at 6-4 until the Wildcats would tie the game by recording one run in the seventh and one in the eighth.

The Eagles looked to their bats once more as they went to the top of the ninth. Anthony Lombardo (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona Area) drew a leadoff walk to get Juniata started. Klusman then reached on an error, advancing Lombardo to second. A second error brought on Kline and the Eagles were looking at a bases loaded situation with Schreder at the plate. Schreder would groundout to the shortstop but brought in Lombardo for the go-ahead run. 

J.D. Weyant (New Paris, Pa. / Chestnut Ridge) started on the mound for Juniata and went 6.2 innings with five strikeouts. Jon Geyer (Newport, Pa. / Newport) relieved Weyant in the seventh and closed out the inning before Narita took the mound in the eighth.

Juniata returns to conference play with a series opening doubleheader against Moravian on Senior Day Sat. April 23. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. The Eagles will be recognizing the careers of their senior class between games.