MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - Penn State Harrisburg's softball team split with Juniata during the team's home-opening doubleheader at Courtney Pollock Memorial Field on Thursday afternoon, March 16. The Lions fell 10-1 in the opener but bounced back with a 2-1 extra-inning victory in the nightcap.

GAME 1

Penn State Harrisburg (5-4) struggled to get the bats going in a 10-1, five-inning setback to Juniata (1-0) in the first game of Thursday's doubleheader. 

Lauren Hess and Madeline English accounted for the team's only hits in the opener, while Jocelyn Bennett drove in the squad's lone run. 

The Eagles struck first with a single run in the top of the second before taking advantage of a pair of Penn State Harrisburg errors in the third to plate two more. The visitors opened the fourth with a solo home run before using four more hits to stretch things out and tack on four more in the frame.

The Lions managed just one hit through the first four stanzas and pushed one across in the bottom of the fifth but were unable to cut into the deficit any further and extend the game.

GAME 2

Kierstyn Smith turned in a masterful performance inside the circle to lead Penn State Harrisburg (6-4) to a 2-1 win in eight innings in the second game of the team's doubleheader against Juniata (1-1) on Thursday afternoon.

Smith threw a complete game and earned the first win of her young career, allowing just three hits, one walk, and no earned runs. Steph Reider and Leah Macaluso led the way at the plate, driving in one run apiece.

The Lions drew first blood in the bottom of the first when Madelyn Lehigh led off with a single through the right side before she scored from first base when Reider tripled to right field later in the frame. 

A defensive miscue allowed the Eagles to tie things up in the top of the third before stellar pitching and strong defense on both sides resulted in four consecutive scoreless stanzas. Corner outfielders Elaina Gates and Alexus Brown robbed Juniata of potential extra-base knocks and kept things tied heading to extras.

Smith got Reagan Goldsmith to pop up to English at third on a bunt attempt to open the eighth before inducing back-to-back ground balls to Lehigh at shortstop, stranding a runner at third base in the process. After Reider advanced to third base on a wild pitch in the bottom half, Macaluso walked it off with a sacrifice fly to center field.

NOTABLES

- Smith was stout inside the circle in game two, throwing a complete game and allowing no earned runs on just three hits and one walk.

- Reider tripled and scored the game-winning run in the night cap. 

- Macaluso drove in the game-winning run with a sac fly in the eighth inning of the second outing.

- Gates racked up five putouts in left field in game two. 

- Hess and English each went 1-for-1 in the opener, with English scoring the team's lone run.

- Bennett accounted for Penn State Harrisburg's lone RBI in game one.

WHO'S NEXT?

The Lions return to action at Elizabethtown on Tuesday afternoon, March 21.

STAY CONNECTED

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