Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS Juniata's Ava Houtz tags out Susquenita's Kaydon Brandt on a play at third base.

By Connor Jackson

Sports correspondent

MIFFLINTOWN — The Juniata softball team was beaten from start to finish against Susquenita on Friday, giving up seven runs in the first inning and only salvaging one hit in a 16-0 loss.

If it wasn’t for a fourth inning single by Sophia Smith the Indians would have been held hitless by Suquenita starting pitcher Braelyn Prinz.

“Braelyn is good,” Juniata coach Craig Bubb said. “I will be glad when she graduates, she is tough. We cranked the machine up last night just because we suspected that’s who we were going to see tonight. But the machine throws flat, and she has four or five pitches and mixes it up.”

The Blackhawks were able to set the tone early off of Juniata starting pitcher Destiny Yohn, scoring seven runs. Susquenita hit three home runs on the day, with two of them coming from Brinleigh Richards, who finished with six RBIs.

“Good lineups, you can’t put people on,” Bubb said. “You gotta make them earn it. First two batters of the game walked. These guys through the middle of the lineup, they hit so well. That makes it tough, you just kinda put yourself in a hole.”

“Yohn was getting frustrated,” Bubb added. “Couple longballs, couple walks. Defensively I think we only had one error. I shook things up, we completely blew the lineup today and tried something new. Amazingly enough it worked defensively.”

Susquenita scored six in the fifth inning to break things even more open after they were ahead 10-0. The game ended in five innings because of the mercy rule.

Juniata (2-11) will visit Line Mountain on Monday. Juniata’s game versus Lewisburg on Saturday was postponed.