(Posted April 1, 2008)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The Juniata College softball team recorded 30 hits over two games on its way to a doubleheader sweep of Penn State-Harrisburg, Tuesday afternoon at Weis Field in Huntingdon, Pa. Juniata downed the Lions 13-0 in the first game, which was shortened to five innings under the 'mercy rule', then completed the sweep with an 11-4 victory in the seven-inning second game. The wins allowed Juniata (11-10) to boost its overall record to above .500. The Eagles put up five runs on five hits in the first inning, to take a commanding lead in game one. Sarah Eckard (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg) set the tone in the lead-off at bat, slapping a single through the left side of the infield that went all the way to the warning track for a triple. Tara Carl (Duke Center, Pa./Otto-Eldred) hit a long fly ball to center field, which was dropped by PSU-Harrisburg's Amanda Pearson, on Juniata's next at bat, allowing Eckard to score and Carl to reach first. Carl would later cross the plate on Liz Schmitt's (Knoxville, Tenn./H. Frank Carey, N.Y.) single to left field. Stacy Nagy (Millerton, Pa./Troy), who reached on a single to left-center, would eventually score on a wild pitch, while Jackie Morley (North Wales, Pa./Archbishop Wood) and Alyssa Erb (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg) each singled in a run. Juniata added eight more runs in the second, Schmitt's two-run home run to center field and Rachel Nagy's (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth) single to left center that plated two more runs accounting for half of the Eagles' total for the inning. Rachel Nagy drove in a run on her single earlier in the frame, giving her three RBI for the inning. Erb allowed just one hit - a double to right-center by the Lions' Erika Sorenson in the second inning - while striking out five over her five innings of work, improving her record to 7-6. Penn State-Harrisburg starter Desiree Hipple took the loss, after allowing all 13 runs, seven earned, in an inning-and-two-thirds of work. Penn State-Harrisburg finally got on the scoreboard in the first inning of game two, when Michelle Herb reached on a single and scored on a Brittany Straw double. However Juniata continued to pound out the runs in game two, with the Eaglles logging two runs in the bottom half of the first on Schmitt's two-run single. The Eagles added three more in the second inning, when Carl sent a three-run blast over the fences. Eckard's two-out, two-run double, followed by a Carl single that plated Eckard, capped a four-run third inning for the Eagles. Another two-run homer by Schmitt in the sixth rounded out Juniata's scoring. The Lions (1-11) completed their scoring in the third inning, with Straw doubling home a pair of runs and eventually scoring on a single off the bat of Krystal Miranda. Juniata starter Stacy Nagy went the distance for the victory, scattering eight hits while walking three and striking out three. Penn State-Harrisburg's Carrie Beckett also pitched a complete game, allowing 11 earned runs over six innings. Juniata returns to action on Saturday, April 5, when the Eagles travel to Bethlehem, Pa., to face Moravian College in a Landmark Conference doubleheader starting at 1:00 p.m. -30-

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