Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS Juniata catcher Cam Bargo tries to tag out Greenwood's Owen Losch on a play at the plate.

By Connor Jackson

Sports correspondent

MIFFLINTOWN — The Juniata baseball team couldn’t find enough late-inning magic to overcome a 6-2 deficit, falling 8-5 against Greenwood on Wednesday.

Juniata scored three runs in the fifth inning to close the gap to 6-5. But Greenwood added on to their lead in the seventh with two runs and Juniata couldn’t form a rally to tie the game.

“Just timely hits, just didn’t get any timely hits when we needed them,” Juniata coach Adam Geedey said. “That was the big thing, couldn’t get anything rolling with the bats.”

Greenwood used a single to tie the game 1-1 in the second inning. The Wildcats would take the lead in the third with two more runs and scored three runs in the fifth to go ahead 6-2.

The Indians then began to form a comeback in the bottom half. Daylyn Kennedy hit a triple that drove in two runs and Kennedy would later score when Drew Geedey hit a sacrifice fly to make it 6-5. Kennedy finished 2-3 with a double and a triple, and Hayden Burd was 2-3 with a double.

That was all they could muster on offense though. “Obviously we needed to score at least nine,” Geedey said. “We are just not getting enough runs across the plate right now. We are just watching a lot of first pitch strikes right down the middle.”

“They didn’t give up,” Geedey added. “I did like the fight, but we got to do that earlier and keep that going all game and not wait until we are down 6-2.”

Geedey also started on the mound and pitched 4 â…” innings, allowing six runs. Kennedy replaced him in the fifth inning and shut down the scoring threat in the fifth before allowing two runs in the seventh.

“Drew was off and on, not as many strikes as I would like to have seen him throw,” Geedey said. “He was effective, just some little things. We were in the game, we had a chance to win, we could have won that game.”

Juniata (1-4) will now look ahead to East Juniata at 4:30 p.m. on Friday to break their current three-game losing streak.

“We got to do the little things,” Geedey said. “We got to come ready to play, ready to put teams away, ready to fight and claw every inning.”