Craig’s Walk-Off Homer Sends Eagles to Win, Royals Take Game Two in Offensive Blitz

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: May 3, 2021

HUNTINGDON, Pa.- The Juniata baseball team won in thrilling fashion before losing in the second, winning on a Sam Craig (Mullica Hill, N.J. / Kingsway Regional) walk-off two-run homer 15-13 before losing 18-2 on a warm and windy Sunday afternoon at Langdon Goodale Field.

The Royals came out swinging to start game one, piling up nine runs over the first three innings, which included scoring five in the third.

The Eagles got three back in the third, on RBI-singles from Jake Swank (Portage, Pa. / Portage), Michael Warren (New Berlin, Pa. / Mifflinburg Area) and Craig.

They continued their comeback in the fourth, with more RBI-singles from Isaac Maclay (Belleville, Pa. / Mifflin County High School) and Ben Raab (Langhorne, Pa. / Neshaminy) sandwiched around Swank’s three-run shot to left. JC trailed by just one by the ending of the inning 9-8.

Scranton responded in the fifth with a sacrifice fly to center and a solo homer to left to make it 11-8.

Ryan McClain (Hughesville, Pa. / Hughesville) got in on the home run action with a solo shot to left to narrow the deficit to two.

A walk with the bases loaded and a sac fly to right in the top of the sixth put the Royals up by four, 13-9.

Maclay launched a ball over the fence in left-center to score two runs, and Raab’s RBI-single that snuck through the left side made it 13-12.

In the eighth, Dakotah Snyder(Lewisburg, Pa. / Lewisburg) scored Evan Mock (Mifflin County, Pa / McVeytown) from second with an RBI-single to center to complete the Eagles quest of tying the score, as they pulled even at 13-13.

Dominic Hoyle (Woodbridge, Va. / Garfield) entered in the ninth and got the first two outs on a groundout to short, and struck the next batter out looking. He conceded a double before nabbing the third out on a fly-out to right.

In the bottom of the ninth, Raab singled through the left side with one out. Then Craig got all of an 0-1 pitch and sent it soaring over the fence in left to give JC the victory.

The Eagle’s 24 hits are the most in a game since 2014 when they had 24 against Penn State Altoona in a 25-3 win. The 15 RBI are the most since 2018, in the 17-8 win over Beck in Florida.

Game two got off to an inauspicious start as the Royals pushed for runs across the plate. The Eagles got settled from there, and Jack Dovidio (Glenmore, Pa. / Downingtown West) left zeros on the scoreboard in the second, third and fourth innings. The problem was the Eagles didn’t manage to close the gap.

The fifth inning saw the visitors blow the game wide open as they scored eight runs on five hits to lead 12-0. A McClain RBI-double to left and a Maclay RBI-triple down the right-field line gave JC two runs, but Scranton added six more over the final two innings to complete the final game of the series, 18-2.