Grantham, PA — An early deficit and an inability to slow down visiting York College eventually doomed the Messiah College baseball team Thursday afternoon, as the Falcons dropped their first home game of the year in a 12-9 decision to the visiting Spartans.
York (9-20) scored three runs in the first inning and two in the second to put Messiah (20-8) behind from the outset, as senior pitcher Chandler Sheaffer (2-2) failed to bring his best stuff initially: The Falcons' pitching staff surrendered five walks to Spartans batters on the day, while all five eventually scored.
“I've always believed that in baseball, if you can get two of the big three in good pitching, good defense and good hitting, you'll most likely win,” said Messiah head coach Bryan Engle. “Despite the fact that we got two of those three things today, we couldn't get the win. We played great defense and we hit the ball well enough, but our pitching just wasn't enough to get it done.”
Sheaffer gave up five of his seven hits allowed in the first two innings of work, walking three York batters during that span as well. The result was five Spartans' scores before Messiah could get anything going, and Engle's team was playing catch-up from the get-go.
“It's very, very tough to play behind against a good team like York,” Engle said. “This is a team that won 32 games in qualifying for the national tournament last season and has just about everyone back. They are much better than their (current) record indicates, and we knew that going in. Early, Chandler got behind in the count and let some pitches get up in the zone on him, and that's not a good combination. He settled in quite a bit after that, but it is so hard to play from behind.”
Despite that fact, Messiah had its opportunities. A double from junior Ben Kirk was followed by an RBI single from senior Kyle Stuckey in the bottom of the second inning, while two more runs in the Falcons' half of the fourth helped offset a solo run from York in the top of the stanza.
Trailing by a 6-3 count, however, Engle's club could not pin down York when it needed to most. Following two shut out innings from Sheaffer, the Spartans got after it again in the seventh, tacking two more runs on the board via a walk and double. A home run from senior Craig Mease in the bottom of the seventh again pulled Messiah to an 8-4 deficit, but sophomore pitcher Elliott Thomas struggled mightily in the eighth inning, allowing four more York runs off of four hits and a walk.
“With the way we've been playing lately, we never think we're out of a game,” Engle said of his team that has averaged 11.1 runs per game in its last 16 wins. “Today we cut the lead to what we thought was manageable both in the seventh and eighth (innings), but then we gave up big innings ourselves.”
Perhaps a testament to the Falcons' explosive offensive abilities, York's 12-4 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth turned out to be far from safe. A double from senior Ben Snyder and a single from sophomore Sheldon Witmer pushed across three in the eighth, while the inning ended in agonizing fashion for Engle and company: With the bases loaded and two outs retired, senior Ben Jordan was called out on strikes, drawing boos from the crowd and the ire of Engle.
“I didn't think it was a strike and Ben didn't think it was a strike,” Engle said of the pitch. “In baseball, usually calls equal out over the course of a season, but that one was especially tough considering we had the tying run standing in the on-deck circle.”
Messiah added two more runs in the final inning — another single from Mease drove in one of the scores — but sophomore Jon-Mike Richards struck out with two left on base to conclude the contest.
Mease led all Falcons' hitters with a 3-6, three RBI performance that included his fifth homer of the season. Snyder finished 3-5 with three RBI as well, while Witmer, Kirk and Stuckey all finished with two hits apiece.
Messiah left 13 runners on base in the game, while the team's three, four and five batters went a season's-worst 0-13 from the plate.
“I hate to lose, but the best thing about baseball is that we only have to wait about 20 hours to go do this again,” Engle said. “Let's put it behind us. You really can't afford to dwell. We've got a very good conference team coming here tomorrow, and it should be a fun game. What matters now is how we respond. I'm much more interested now in how we come back.”
The Falcons will host MAC Commonwealth foe Widener University tomorrow, a squad boasting an 18-6 record overall. A single, nine-inning game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Messiah will then make the return trip to Chester, Pa. Saturday for a double-header beginning at 12 p.m.
