York, PA - The Messiah Falcons opened the Commonwealth Tournament with an 11-3 loss to the Stevenson Mustangs in the early hours of Friday morning. The Falcons trailed 2-1 heading into the sixth inning, but the Mustangs scored seven runs in the top of the sixth and two more in the seventh to build a 10-run cushion.
While the Falcons would score a run in both the eighth and ninth it wasn't enough as the Mustangs advanced to take on the No. 1 Alvernia Crusaders in the winner's bracket finally. With the loss, Messiah will have a quick turn-around, as they will play the first game on Friday morning, first pitch is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Friday morning.
It looked to be a pitchers duel in the early going as
Steven Ridings and Alec Romanowski traded zeros in the first two frames. In the top of the third the Mustangs struck first with an RBI single that evaded a diving
Zach Brubaker and plated the first two runs of the game as the ball tricked into right field.
The Falcons looked to be in a position to dent the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. With one out
Derek Drake reached on an error and
Jon Heisey collected the first Falcons' hit of the game with a flare single down the right field line. Heisey's hit put runners at the corner with one away. But the Falcons rally abruptly came to a stop as Heisey was caught trying to steal second on a delayed steal and on the very next pitch
Kyle Schoen struck out.
However just an inning later, the Falcons would cut the Stevenson margin in half when
Adam Janney hit into a fielder's choice that drove home
Ben Sollenberger, who had tripled earlier in the inning. Unfortunately for Messiah, the one run would be all they would get. With two outs, the Falcons made another out of the base paths as
John Griffitts was picked off of first base with runners at the corners to end the inning.
As mentioned the wheels came off in the top of the sixth, the Falcons allowed the first six batters of the inning to reach base on a combination of hits, errors, and a hit batsman. When the dust settled, the Mustangs had brought 12 men to the play in the inning, seven of them came around to score on six Stevenson hits and two Messiah errors.
In the sixth the Falcons could not push a run across the plate and left two men on base.
In the Mustangs' half of the seventh they tacked on two more runs, one on an RBI double to left center and another on an RBI groundout to second base. The two runs pushed their lead to an even 10 for the game, 11-1.
Messiah did fight back with some quality at bats in the final two frames, but it wasn't enough and the Mustangs won by a final score of 11-3.
Seniors,
Derek Drake and
Jon Heisey were the only Falcons to collect multi-hit games going 2-4 and 2-5 respectively; Heisey also drove in a run.
Steven Ridings took the loss allowing nine runs (five earned) on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out five against just one walk.
With a first round loss, the Falcons will need to fight through the losers bracket and win two games tomorrow in order for a chance to play for the Commonwealth Championship on Saturday. Messiah will play their second game of the tournament at 11:00 a.m. on Friday morning against the Widener Pride, who fell to the Alvernia Crusaders by a score of 4-2 in the first game on Thursday evening.
If the Falcons can win the early morning game, they will play the loser of the winner's bracket game at 7:00 p.m. All games are being played at Santander Stadium in York.
Be sure to follow @MessiahSports on Twitter for the most up to date news and times of games for the Falcons this weekend.
