By Kenny Varner

COCOLAMUS- Sweet 600!

Juniata pitcher Liz Gaisior reached yet another milestone in her young career, topping the 600 strike out mark against rival East Juniata.

The two Juniata County rivals met on softball Diamond Monday afternoon.

East Juniata hosted Juniata in their first Tri-Valley League meeting of the year.

Both teams came into the contest with strong records, the Indians posted a 9-1 record while the Tigers came in at 6-3.

In the end, the Indians would muscle out a hard fought 2-0 victory.

“Whenever you play on a cold, windy day it’s always just bring it out to try to win. They’re (East Juniata) a good team. They brought their A-game tonight,” said Juniata Coach Erin Cressman. “We had to bring it and we did. We stuck with it. We kept chipping away for a couple runs. The defense played well. Liz played great!”

It was a pitcher’s duel between Gaisior and East Juniata hurler Brenna Watts. Gaisior struck out 15 while Watts notched eight.

Offensively, the Indians were led by Savannah Marshall who finished 2-for-3 on the day.

Both teams pounded out four hits on the windy afternoon.

“I was proud and very excited to see what we could do against Liz (Gaisior) she’s always been a strong pitcher. But our girls definitely made some contact. They put the ball in play. It was just some were hit right to their girls.”

Defensively, both teams played stingy and the game remained close from beginning to end.

Juniata opened the scoring posting a run in their first at bats.

With two outs Alexa Frontz kept the inning alive posting a walk.

Marshall hit a smash liner in the gap between short and home to score Frontz.

Gaisior started off strong as she set down East Juniata down in order, all by strike outs.

Watts sent the Indians down in order in the second.

After giving up a lead off single to Watts, Gaisior went back to work string out the next three, quickly adding a total of six strike outs early on.

The Lady Indians added its second run in the fourth.

Gaisior helped her own cause posting a single into center. She advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a Shaelyn Armstrong double, upping the contest to 2-0.

History would be made in the fourth, with two outs, Gaisior struck out Macy Buskey to capture her 600th strike out. Earlier in the season, the phenom reached 500. Just a couple weeks later, she hit the 600-K mark.

East Juniata threatened to get some runs across in the fifth.

After hits from Maddie Snyder and Grace Hibbs put the tying run on base.

But Gaisior would notch a strike out, ending the threat.

That would be as close as the Lady Tigers would get the rest of the afternoon.

With the win, Juniata improves to 9-1 while East Juniata drops to 6-4.