WPCNR PRESS BOX. Special to WPCNR from Shannon Logan. June 9, 2005, UPDATED 11:20 A.M. E.D.T.: The Juggernaut dropped its first game of the 2005 season Wednesday night by 4-2 to archrival, the New England Riptide. Laura Taylor, last week’s player of the week, led the offense, going 2-for-3 with a single and a triple in the loss. Last year's hard luck pitcher for New England, Jocelyn Forest, got the complete game win and former Juggernaut, Kellie Wilkerson, registered a two run homerun in the sixth inning to put the Riptide on top for good. The Juggernaut are 4-1 in the NPF. The two teams return to action in Hempstead at Hofstra University this evening for Game Two of the 4-game set.
WPCNR also has learned that Newsday is the first and only New York area daily paper to include extensive Naut Coverage in their sports pages, thanks to their fair-minded Sports Editor, Bill Eichenberger who knows a story when he sees one. Eyewitness News Channel 7 and Channel 55 have also seen fit to tell their viewers about the great sports story nobody in the major media wants to cover.
Kellie Wilkerson Returns to Haunt the Juggernaut. Photo, Courtesy NY Juggernaut, WPCNR Sports Archive.
The Juggernaut jumped out in front in the first inning thanks to an RBI single by Jodie Cox. With two outs, three back-to-back singles by Trena Peel, Taylor and Cox put the Nauts on the board.
The New England Riptide put their first run on the board in the top of the second inning with a solo homerun by Sara Anderson. Peaches James was able to shut down the Riptide the rest of the inning, inducing a ground out and registering two strikeouts.
Kellie Wilkerson put the Riptide in the lead with a two run home run in the sixth inning. The Juggernaut battled back in the bottom half of the inning. Laura Taylor hit a one out triple to right field before being pinch run for by Alison Higgs. Jodie Cox followed with her second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Higgs from third.
New England added an insurance run in the top of the seventh when former Naut, Lisa Iancin, drove in Kristine Botto from second base.
Naut Nuggets.
The NY Juggernaut take on the New England Riptide in game two of the series tomorrow night at 7:00p.m. Thursday, June 9th is also High School Softball Night. Be sure to come out and support all local high school teams on their outstanding achievements this season.
For tickets or more information on the NY Juggernaut, please call 631-385-1634 or visit the Juggernaut online at www.nynjjuggernaut.com. All Juggernaut home games play-by-play may be heard worldwide on the internet at www.wrhu.org.
Newsday -- A Real Newspaper -- A Real Sports Editor.
Kudos to Newsday and their Sports Editor, Bill Eichenberger, who gave extensive coverage to the Nauts Opening night game last week. Mr. Eichenberger is the only sports editor among the big New York Media, other than the White Plains CitizeNetReporter and The Bergen Record to give any coverage to the Juggernaut in his paper.
Mr. Eichenberger is to be commended for his nose for sports news and fair play. Eichenberger told WPCNR in an interview that the Naut Opener only attracted about 200 fans, and if there was continued low attendance he could not justify staffing or continued coverage. But, at least Mr. Eichenberger, gave the league a chance at coverage.
The Times, The Post, The Daily News, ESPN, WFAN have resolutely failed, for some inexplicable reason to provide Juggernaut scores and standings in their pages , and game reports for two years now, not even covering USA SOFTBALL Star Natasha Wately's debut in the New York area. The Juggernaut office reports that New York's Channel 7 and Channel 55 did do debut stories on the Juggernaut prior to their opener.
RNN Announces Schedule
The Regional News Network has officially announced its schedule of Juggernaut Telecasts, beginning this weekend with the Juggernaut-Riptide Sunday afternoon game on tape delay Sunday evening.
The schedule:
June 12th: Juggernaut vs. New England Riptide
• June 19th: Juggernaut vs. Stratford Brakettes
• June 26th: Juggernaut vs. Chinese National Team
• July 3rd: Juggernaut vs. Texas Thunder
• July 17th: Juggernaut vs. Venezuelan National Team
• July 24th: Juggernaut vs. New England Riptide
• July 31st: Juggernaut vs. Chicago Bandits
FINAL SCORE
Score by Innings R H E
-----------------------------------------
New England Riptide. 010 002 1 - 4 8 1
NY Juggernaut……… 100 001 0 - 2 5 0
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NATIONAL PRO FASTPITCH STANDINGS (Source: NPF)
JUNE 9, 2005:
NEW ENGLAND RIPTIDE 2 0 1.000
NEW YORK JUGGERNAUT 4 1 .800
CHICAGO BANDITS 3 1 .750
AKRON RACERS 3 1 .750
ARIZONA HEAT 4 3 .571
TEXAS THUNDER 0 0 .000
Note: The Regional News Network Announces its Telecasts of Naut games. Schedule has just been added to this story.
