Eagles Extinguish Flame of the Phoenix

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa.- The Juniata softball team earned a pair of wins on the road as they took two from Wilson College, 6-0 and 6-4, Wednesday afternoon at Kris's Meadow Stadium. 

The Eagles got the board in the top of the second, with Claire Thomas leading off with an infield single. Caleigh Love singled up the middle, and two batters later, Kassandra Roush drew a walk to load the bases. Ashley Cheung lined a two-run single up the middle to score Thomas and Love. 

In the fourth, Paige Loudenslager led off with a single to right, and Emily Eutsey followed with a single through the left side. Roush's ground out to third advanced both runners, and Cheung smacked a single to left for her third RBI of the game as Loudenslager scored. Cheung stole second, and Cate Baran's ground out to short allowed Eutsey to score. Alex Douglass's infield single scored Cheung to push the Eagle lead to five. 

Gracie Ruch's RBI double in the seventh scored Baran for the final run of game one. 

Baran tossed another excellent game as she threw 7.0 innings while allowing one hit and striking out four. 

In game two, Wilson struck first on an RBI single to right in the first. 

In the second, Lauren Fisher started the second with a single to right. Eutsey walked two batters later, and Kay Magill lined a single to right center to advance Eutsey to third and score Fisher. Magill stole second before Regan Goldsmith smacked another single to right to score Eutsey and put Magill on third. Magill scored on a wild pitch to put JC up 3-1 after two. 

Fisher scored Douglass on a sac fly to left to increase the lead to four. 

Wilson tied the game after a three-run fourth that saw them score three runs on five hits.  

Juniata didn't waste any time retaking the lead, as they manufactured two runs on four hits and two Wilson errors in the fifth to retake the lead. 

Ruch held the Phoenix to one hit over the final three innings to get the win for Juniata. Ruch came in for relief and tossed 3.2 innings while allowing three hits, two walks, and striking out one. 

Juniata will travel to take on top of the conference Moravian Saturday at 1:00.