Baseball Drops Game One as Royals Rally Late

SCRANTON, Pa.-The Juniata baseball team suffered a 6-5 walk off defeat at the hands of the University of Scranton to open Landmark Conference play, Saturday afternoon at Volpe Field. 

The pitchers kept a lid on both offenses through the first three innings, with Gavin Grimaldi (Clymer, Pa. / Penns Manor) stranding two runners in the first and the third to keep the Royals off the scoreboard.

Adam Kipp (Mt. Wolf, Pa. / Northeastern) started the fourth with a double to right center and scored two batters later as Jake Swank (Portage, Pa. / Portage) reached on an error by the shortstop. Hunter Price (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon Area) singled up the middle before Matt Innella (Commack, N.Y. / Commack) smacked another double to right center to score Swank. Joshua Gery (Pottstown, Pa. / Pottstown Senior High School) singled through the right side to send Price home as the Eagles led 3-0. 

Swank's two-run triple in the fifth scored Isaac Maclay (Belleville, Pa. / Mifflin County High School) and Kipp to push the advantage to five. 

Scranton scored via a double to left center in the sixth and pushed two more runs across in the seventh with a triple to right to cut the deficit in half, 5-3.

The teams traded blanks in the eighth and JC didn't score in the top half of the ninth, so the Royals needed two to tie and three to win heading into the bottom half of the ninth.

The first batter grounded out, but a walk was followed by an RBI triple to right center and a sac fly to right as the Royals knotted things at 5-5. A double followed by a walk set the table for a walk off single to center as Scranton completed the comeback. 

The teams will face off in a doubleheader tomorrow, with first pitch at 11:00