Catholic Narrowly Edges Eagles With 11th Inning Walk-Off in Landmark Tournament Elimination Game

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The #5 Juniata baseball team came all the way back from an eight-run deficit to force extra innings before ultimately losing in the 11^th to #2 Catholic, 11-10, Saturday afternoon at Talbot Field in the Landmark Tournament. 

The Eagles got off to a strong start, with Isaac Maclay (Belleville, Pa. / Mifflin County High School) drawing a one-out walk and Dakotah Snyder (Lewisburg, Pa. / Lewisburg) following with a double to right. Jake Swank (Portage, Pa. / Portage) reached safely on a fielder's choice while Maclay scored on a throwing error by the third baseman. Michal Warren's (New Berlin, Pa. / Mifflinburg Area) infield single plated Snyder and doubled the lead to 2-0. 

The Cardinals wasted no time taking the lead in the bottom half of the first. They tied the game on a two-run double to left-center and took the lead on an RBI single to center before making it 4-2 when they scored on an error. 

The second inning saw Catholic do even more damage as they scored six runs on six hits. JC did well to get out the inning as Zach Malone (Bainbridge, Pa. / Elizabethtown Area HS) induced a ground out to second with the bases loaded. 

JC got two back in the third with Warren's RBI-single to center, and Sam Craig's (Mullica Hill, N.J. / Kingsway Regional) sacrifice fly to right made it 10-4 after three innings. 

The deficit stayed at sixth through the fourth and fifth innings before the bats heated back up in the sixth. 

Ben Raab (Langhorne, Pa. / Neshaminy) singled to center to lead off, Craig followed with a single to left-center, and Joshua Gery (Pottstown, Pa. / Pottstown Senior High School) also singled to load the bases. That set the stage for Evan Mock (Mifflin County, Pa / McVeytown), who smashed a ball over the fence in left to slash the deficit to two, 10-8. Two batters later, Maclay bopped a solo home run to make it 10-9. 

Following a 1-2-3 bottom half of the sixth, Warren led off with a double to right before advancing to third on a wild pitch. Raab was hit by a pitch, and Craig plated Warren with a sac fly to right to tie the score at 10-10. 

The teams traded zeros, with Dominic Hoyle (Woodbridge, Va. / Garfield) managing to get out of the ninth inning with the bases loaded. Gery got the Eagles out of the 10^th by throwing out a runner at second for the third out, his 15^th of the season, the second-most in a season in program history. 

The Eagles got runners on first and second in the 11^th but couldn't get them home. In the bottom half, Catholic reached on an error and took second on a balk. A sac bunt got the runner to third, and Juniata intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases. The Cardinal batter chopped a ball off the dirt towards third base that bounced high towards Warren. He jumped to snag the ball out of the air and fired it to first, but the runner beat the throw to end the game. 

Juniata wraps the year 12-14.