St. Davids, PA — At the start of the season, first-year Messiah College head baseball coach Bryan Engle — a former pitcher for the Falcons — said he always enjoyed a 1-0 win more than a high-scoring ballgame.
If that is still the case, Tuesday's match-up at Eastern University was Engle's antithesis.
Messiah (20-7, 5-1) belted out a season-high 20 hits en route to a program-record 25 runs scored, hanging a 25-8 whallop on the host Eagles. The Falcons blasted a pair of first-inning home runs and never looked back, winning their 16th game in the last 17 outings.
Tuesday's win also pushed Engle's club to the 20-win mark, a plateau reached for only the seventh time in the 44-year history of the program.
Following the latest offensive eruption, Engle was quick to defend his pre-season comments about low-scoring games.
“I did say that I liked 1-0 and 2-1 games as a former pitcher, but I also said that this team had the capabilities to be one of the better offensive teams that we've ever had,” Engle said Tuesday. “Baseball can be a funny game sometimes. There are times when you're just hoping to get a bloop hit to turn the tide, and there are other times where the offense just seems to come easily. The latter was really the case for us today.”
Offense has failed to become elusive in Messiah's recent past, as the team has averaged 11.1 runs per game in its last 16 victories. Wednesday's game looked to follow suit from the outset, as lead-off senior Craig Mease reached base via error and sophomore Adam Ranck singled. A three-run homer from classmate Jon-Mike Richards followed, and Messiah had three runs on the board before Eastern (8-14, 5-4) had recorded its first out of the game.
A pair of groundouts only briefly halted the surge, as junior Ben Kirk blasted a solo shot just three batters later, the catcher's third home run in as many at bats. It was his third dinger in his last four plate appearances, as Kirk was issued a walk against Lebanon Valley College over the weekend when he wasn't showering the parking lot with baseballs.
Messiah's four-run first inning gave way to one in the third, six in both the fifth and sixth and five in the ninth — all while Eastern was able to score just three runs until a five-run bottom of the ninth turned a 25-3 game into the eventual 25-8 final.
“I thought the most important thing was our start to the game,” Engle said. “We scored three runs before they really could blink, and I thought that was key.”
Messiah took advantage of shaky pitching from the Eagles, earning a season-high seven base runners via hit by pitch while collecting 13 walks as well. Eastern threw a total of six pitchers on the day, failing to find a combination to stop the bleeding.
Things got only remotely closer when Engle emptied his bench in the latter portions of the game, as senior Jeremy Stoltzfus (3-2) carded the pitching win, starting the game and going six full innings while striking out six and walking just one.
“Stoltzfus threw well,” Engle said. “With a lead like we had, he did a nice job of not giving them too much to work with. Our key lately has been putting a lot of runs on the board, and everyone relaxes. There is a sense of confidence that moves across the team, and we're playing that way now at the start of games.”
Senior Ben Jordan added a third home run of the game to go with Kirk's and Richards' blasts, while sophomore Jordan Zimmerman and senior Ben Snyder both doubled. Richards led the run pushing with four RBI, while Jordan, sophomore Sheldon Witmer and sophomore Adam Ranck all had three. Jordan and Snyder each had a team-best five hits, while Kirk scored four runs.
The offensive heroes were simply too numerous to list.
“It was a good game in that we were able to get a lot of people some time on the field, and we got our regulars some time to rest and enjoy being good teammates,” Engle said. “We've got a busy rest of the week, and we're looking forward to it.”
Messiah will take its lone day off next, before hosting York College on Thursday. The Falcons will meet the Spartans in a single, nine-inning contest at 3:30 p.m.
