Junction City fell to Emporia in girls softball at Cleary Field 9-7 and 8-1 Tuesday evening. The Lady Jays are 3-3 on the season.
In game one, the Lady Jays jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second inning thanks to timely hitting. Sending ten batters to the plate, and tallying five base hits in the frame.
Emporia would hold the Lady Jays scoreless for the next three innings before the Spartans would finally score two in the 5th, but JCHS would get one back in the bottom of the inning, taking a 7-2 lead to the sixth.
In the sixth, Emporia would score three to get within 7-5 of the Lady Jays.
The 7th inning saw a Spartan rally of four runs to take their first lead of the game at 9-7.
Junction City would get two baserunners with two outs in the bottom of the 7th, but would be unable to tie the game.
In game two, Emporia would score three runs in the second and four in the sixth to lead 7-0 heading to the bottom of the inning. Junction City's bats had been silenced for much of the second game, but finally they would scratch across one run in the bottom of the 6th to trail 7-1.
Emporia would tally one final insurance run before shutting down the Jays in the final inning to win 8-1.
Lady Jay Head coach Aaron Craig felt encouraged by his team's effort, despite the losses on Tuesday. "We've got a young team. We have some seniors that have been a part of our program, but we have a lot of young girls as far as out here on the field experience at the high school level," said Craig. "I'm happy with the bats that we're swinging though because we've been in some situations in the past where we don't swing a bat. Once you start swinging, eventually it's going to work for you."
Junction City will host Topeka West on Friday.