HUNTINGDON, Pa. - Baseball hit the road for the final time of the 2024 regular season and also wrapped up non-conference play as they dropped a pair to the Juniata Eagles. The Eagles defeated the Cougars 16-9 in game one and 11-8 in game two.
In game one, a ten-run second inning for Juniata would help propel them to victory. The Eagles picked up two in the fourth and one in the fifth to lead 13-1 after five innings. The Chatham bats got it going in the sixth as they scored eight to cut into Juniata's lead. Senior
Benny Dottle singled to lead off the inning. The Cougars took advantage of free bases as Sophomore
Peter Tadic, Sophomore
Caleb Jones, and Junior
Solomon Walker all walked that brought up pinch-hitter Freshman
Adam Cornelius. Cornelius cashed in as he lifted a ball out to left field that cleared the fence for a grand slam, and his first collegiate homerun. The Cougars would score two more in the inning. Freshman
Ty Blackburn started the rally back up with a double down the left field line. Sophomore
Angelo DeLeonardis singled and Dottle would hit his second single of the inning, this time an RBI single scoring DeLeonardis.
The Cougars were outhit 17-12 in the contest.
Benny Dottle: 3-4, 2 R, 1 RBI,
Peter Tadic: 2-3, 1 R, 1 RBI,
Brandon Bell: 2-2,
Cornelius: 1-2, HR, 4 RBI.
In game two, again Juniata wasted no time taking an early lead. They scored four in the first and five in the second to give the Eagles a 9-0 lead after two innings of play. Chatham was able to score one in the second inning though, as Junior
Tyler Cote's single scored Freshman
Nolan Boehm. Things stayed at 9-1 until the Cougars answered with six runs in the sixth inning to trim the Eagle lead to 9-7.
Nolan Boehm hit his second homerun of the season with nobody on an one out and Cote hit an RBI double. Dottle would come up with the bases loaded and proceed to clear the bases with a doublr to left field. The very next batter
Peter Tadic traded places with Dottle to give him his 11th double of 2024. Juniata answered with two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 11-7 lead. Going into the final inning, Chatham needed at least four runs to continue play but only scored one when
Nolan Boehm hit his second homerun of the season. Nothing else got going for the Cougars in the inning as they were dfeated in game two 11-8.
Four Cougars combined for eleven of the Chatham 13 hits.
Dottle: 3-5, 3 RBI,
Boehm: 3-3, 3 R, 1 RBI,
Kelley: 2-4,
Cote: 3-4, 3 RBI.
Going 6-9 with 4 RBI's on the day,
Benny Dottle extends his hit streak to six. In those six games, four of them have been multi-hit games and he collected his 100th career hit as a Cougar. Dottle went 13-25 (.520) at the plate. Dottle a La Roche transfer, now has 160 hits all time between the two schools.
Baseball moves to 18-19 (9-9) overall. They will wrap up PAC and regular season play on Saturday, as they'll host the T-3rd place Grove City Wolverines. With the season winding down, there are two playoff spots up for grabs for three teams, one them being the Cougars and the other two being Thiel and Westminster. Saturday will also be Senior Day as we will honor the 2024 Chatham Baseball Senior Class. Saturday's games are expected to start at 2 & 5 PM with a brief break in between games to honor our seniors.
#RollCougs
