HUNTINGDON, Pa. – The University of Scranton baseball team (25-9-1, 11-4 Landmark) opened up big early leads in both games and cruised to a doubleheader sweep of the Juniata Eagles (13-20, 5-11 Landmark) in Landmark Conference action on Saturday at Langdon-Goodale Field in Huntingdon.

The Royals picked up victories of 10-4 and 13-1 on the afternoon.

With the two wins on Saturday, the Royals are now just one win shy of the single-season program record of 26 that was set in 2008.

Game One

Scranton scored four in the first and never looked back en route to the 10-4 victory in game one.

Senior Tyler Kirsten (Wallenpaupack, Pa./Wallenpaupack Area) opened the scoring with an RBI single in the four-run first, graduate student Kevin Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon Central) added a two-run single and fellow senior Dan Crossan (Media, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) followed with an RBI single of his own for the early 4-0 advantage. In the top of the second, junior Nick Reposa (Factoryville, Pa./Tunkhannock) led off with an infield single, advanced to second on a single, took third on a flyout and scored on sophomore Corey Zientek's (Sugarloaf, Pa./Hazleton Area) sac fly.

The Eagles got solo runs back in the second and fourth innings to cut the lead to 5-2, but the Royals responded with three runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to stretch the lead to 10-2. Johnson drove in a run with an RBI groundout in the sixth and hit a two-run blast in the seventh en route to a career-high five RBI.

His five RBI performance surpasses his previous career-high of four that had been set on two occasions, most recently on May 2, 2021 at Juniata.

Drew Westover gave up five runs on eight hits while walking four and fanning five in five innings of work and was dealt the loss for the Eagles.

For the Royals, junior right-hander Hunter Ralston (Duryea, Pa./Pittston Area) allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits to go along with three walks and four strikeouts over 7 2/3 IP to improve to 3-2 on the year. Ralston has now tossed seven plus innings in each of his last two starts.

Johnson (2-5, HR, 5 RBI, 2 SB, 2 R) and Kirsten (2-5, 2B, RBI, SB, 2 R) both had multi-hit games for Scranton.

Game Two

Head coach Mike Bartoletti's club scored in each of the first three innings and rolled to the 13-1 victory in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader.

The Royals tallied two runs in the first, five in the second and two more in the third for an early 9-0 advantage after three innings.

Johnson knocked in a pair with a two-run single in the first to open the scoring. From there, Zientek, junior Braden Breithaupt (Canadensis, Pa./Stroudsburg), graduate student Connor Harding (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) and sophomore Aidan Plick (Cranford, N.J./Cranford) all drove in runs as part of the five-run second inning that made it a 7-0 game at the time.

Harding plated a run with a fielder's choice and Zientek added a sac fly in the previously mentioned two-run third.

Junior right-hander Daniel Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Immaculata) allowed just one run on seven hits while walking one and fanning four over 6.0 IP to earn his seventh win of the year for the Royals. Johnson's seven victories match the program's single-season record that was set by Bobby Della Polla during the 2013 campaign.

In relief of Johnson, senior lefty James Gadue (West Hartford, Conn./Hall) fanned three over three scoreless innings to preserve the win.

Juniata's Jack Johnson was charged with nine runs on nine hits in three innings of work and took the loss.

The Royals added solo runs in each of the final three frames including a solo blast from junior Robert Beyer (Bedford, N.Y./Fordham Prep) and RBI singles from Kirsten and sophomore Jack Heineman (Abington, Pa./LaSalle College).

Kirsten leads the Landmark Conference with 53 RBI on the season, a total that is just three shy of the single-season program record of 56 and ranks in the top 10 nationally.

Zientek (3-4, 2 RBI, 2 R) led the way offensively for Scranton in the nightcap, while Breithaupt (2-3, 2B, RBI, SB, 2 R), Kirsten (2-5, RBI, R) and junior George Jenkins (Allentown, Pa./Parkland) who was 2-4 with two runs scored also added multi-hit games.

The two teams will wrap up the series on Sunday at 10 a.m.

--ROYALS--