St. Joseph Academy outlasts EJ

By rscaife
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Updated: April 25, 2017

By Kenny Varner

COCOLAMUS – Posting an early 3-0 lead over the East Juniata baseball team, the St. Joseph Academy team busted out the bats for 11 hits and was able to hold the Tigers at bats for most of the evening, winning 7-4.
Leading the way offensively for St. Joseph Academy were Zac Thornburg who went 2-for-4 and scored a run and Matt Steyers who was 2-for-3 on the night with 2RBI.
East Juniata got 2-hit performances by Seth Rowe, who went 2-for-3, RBI and Logan Wagner who went 2-for-4, run.
However, the Tigers showed numerous times in the contest that they weren’t going to go away without a fight in a game where the score might not been indicative of how close the game was.
For much of the game, the Wolves held just a one-run advantage.
East Juniata starter Luke Davis had his curve ball working and froze batters at the plate. He finished with five strikeouts while giving up 10 hits and six runs in the six innings he pitched.
Winning pitcher was Jose Montes as he replaced starter Cole Bernier in the third.
” They would get a couple runners on and then they would get the key hits which was basically the key in the game. They were able to get the runs when they had runners on. I think I saw we had three or four runners in those first few innings. One inning we had the bases loaded and weren’t able to score anything. A key hit would have scored them, “East Juniata coach Tim Brubaker said. “Luke pitched a pretty good game today. He kept them off balance. He had his curve ball working. He froze quite a bit of their hitters with it.”
The game started with a “bang!” when lead off hitter Zac Thornburg blasted a double into the outfield.
He moved up to third on a single by Designated hitter Ryan Peachey.
Jack Mangene got the Wolves on the board as he roped a 2RBI double to left, scoring Thornburg and Peachey on the play, making it 2-0.
With two out, Cam Burris brought in Mangene after a smoking single to left.
East Juniata battled back in the bottom of the second when it played two runs in the inning to close in on the deficit.
The Tigers showed much patience on the plate.
Leading off the inning, Logan Wagner blasted a double.
Ethan Jamison took one for the team as he was hit by a pitch, sending him to join Wagner on the base paths. After a double steal, the runners were both in scoring position sitting on second and third.
Brice Martin loaded the bases by picking up a walk.
Mason Hambright showed that patience pays off by also walking and in the process picked up an easy RBI.
Mike Davis followed in Hambright’s footsteps and also walked in a run, cutting it to 3-2 heading into the third.
Both teams defenses kept the other off the scoreboard until the top of the sixth inning when the Wolves picked up three more insurance runs as the game went into the bottom of the inning.
Trailing 6-2, East Juniata rallied to cut back into the lead at 6-4.
But another run by St.Joseph in seventh was more than the Tigers could handle as the Wolves went onto the 3-run road victory over the young Tigers