Grantham, PA — Messiah and Elizabethtown College opened MAC Commonwealth play with fireworks Saturday afternoon, as each team utilized a game-winning home run to split a double-header at Starry Field.
Junior Sheldon Witmer ripped a three-run blast in the bottom of the sixth inning to help Messiah to a 4-1 win in the opener, while the Blue Jays' Adam Sheibley turned the tables in the nightcap, ripping a seventh-inning three-run dinger of his own to help Elizabethtown to a 4-2 decision.
The drama came as little surprise to Messiah head coach Bryan Engle, who said he expected nothing less in both teams' conference openers.
“Anytime Messiah and E'Town get together, it's going to be on,” he said. “It doesn't matter if it's rock-paper-scissors. These two schools bring out the best in one another.”
That was certainly the case on the mound for both teams Saturday, as four near complete-game pitchers recorded a total 19 strikeouts on the day — while giving up just 18 hits overall. Witmer matched up with E'Town ace Sam Heaps in the day's first contest, needing his own late heroics to pull out the Game One victory.
“Sheldon threw his best game in a Messiah uniform,” Engle said. “Going up against the reigning MAC Commonwealth Pitcher of the Year (Heaps), he knew he'd need a good outing. He didn't have a lot of K's, but that's fine. He operated quickly, and when you do that your defense has a tendency to be more zoned in, more alert.”
Witmer (3-1) allowed just five hits in the opening win, striking out just two but keeping the Blue Jays off the base paths. Elizabethtown (9-7, 1-1) got on the board in the first inning thanks to a double from Heaps, but Messiah (7-11-1, 1-1) responded with a solo score in the fourth coming off a walk and a subsequent single from Witmer. Senior Ben Kirk hit a sacrifice grounder to bring in freshman Jon Brubaker, and things were knotted up 1-1.
The score would remain that way until the bottom of the sixth, as Heaps (2-1) recorded seven of his eight strikeouts in the first five innings of work.
It was then that the first of the day's game-altering blasts would transpire.
Following a Falcons' strikeout, Brubaker singled. Engle then called for a hit and run, and senior Jonny Ebersole beat out an attempted double-play grounder to short — Brubaker getting in just ahead of the tag at second base as well.
That set the stage for Witmer's heroics, as the sturdy left-handed batter pulled a shot deep over the right field wall, clearing the bases and giving Messiah a 4-1 lead in the most dramatic of fashions.
Witmer then returned to the mound to record a strikeout and a pair of groundouts in the top of the seventh, making an issued walk to Elizabethtown pinch hitter Tim Rosser a moot point.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity in the first game, and Sheldon obviously took advantage with a huge hit,” Engle said. “He was just great on the mound all day as well. He only ran a three ball count three times in seven innings, and one of those was his walk in the top of the seventh. You do that, and it's proof that you're pounding the (strike) zone.”
As Messiah snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the opener, it would be E'Town returning the favor in Game Two, as sophomore Travis Thome (1-3) would come just one pitch away from leading the Falcons to a sweep of their league rivals. Thome threw six and two thirds innings on the mound, striking out four while allowing just one run on one hit — before the dreaded seventh inning.
Much like in Game One, it was Elizabethtown that took an early lead, only for Messiah to get a clutch rally late. A pair of singles led to a Blue Jay run in the top of the third, but a clutch double from junior Jordan Zimmerman would help the Falcons to a two-run sixth.
Following a lead off walk from Brubaker, Ebersole bunted him over to second. Witmer then drew a walk, while the base runners advanced to third and second following a wild pitch from Elizabethtown's Adam Hartzell.
That set the stage for Zimmerman's blast, as the Falcons' centerfielder ripped a high fly ball to the bottom of the centerfield wall, bringing in both Brubaker and Witmer for a 2-1 Messiah lead.
After losing all three regular-season games against E'Town last season, it appeared as if the Falcons would start this year's three-game series with a double-header sweep.
That was, until E'Town's Sheibley did his best Sheldon Witmer imitation.
After Thome forced a ground out and a fly out to start the final half-inning, the Blue Jays finally got some offense going. E'Town's Eric Luff singled, while Andrew Gordon turned a lengthy at-bat into a walk.
Shiebly then took a 2-2 pitch just over the leftfield wall, reclaiming a 4-2 Blue Jay lead and stunning the Messiah crowd.
Engle's club would go down one, two, three in the bottom of the seventh, and the afternoon of dramatic baseball was over.
“I pulled Travis off to the side afterward, and having been a pitcher, I know that (Sheibly's home run) is all that he'll think about until the next time he's on the mound,” Engle said. “But I told him, the important thing to focus on is the fact that you pitched well. You can use this as motivation for your next start, but you can't dwell on one pitch. If he threw a no-hitter today, it wouldn't matter at all in his next start, and neither will this. Travis is such a gamer, I know it's going to hurt. But as he starts lifting and running in prep for his next start, he's really got to start looking forward and not back.”
Hartzell (2-2) finished as the winning pitcher in Game Two, going the distance while offering six strikeouts and just three hits. Two of those were doubles, as Engle longed for what might have been in Messiah's half of the fourth: In addition to Zimmerman's two RBI double in the sixth, Witmer led off the fourth with a two-bagger, but was stranded at third when the last out was recorded.
“In a one-run ballgame, that was a big opportunity that we missed,” Engle said. “To our credit, we kept fighting. Zimm(erman) put some poor at-bats behind him and got a clutch hit in the sixth. Really, today was two very good games that were well pitched and played cleanly. With the four pitchers that were on the mound this afternoon, you expected things to be low scoring. It hurts that we were one pitch away from getting two today, but this was a lot of fun to be part of.”
Due to the fact that Messiah was on its spring break trip in Florida last week, the normal Friday-Saturday conference three-game series will be completed Monday at Elizabethtown, as the Falcons will make the short trip for a 3:30 p.m. nine-inning affair in less than 48 hours.
“Coming back from Florida, we talked a lot about the importance of giving a team 21 outs, and not 23 or 24 or 25,” Engle said. “I thought today we did a pretty good job of that. It's never over until the final out, but that's the beauty of baseball. There's no clock. That's what makes it such a fun game. Monday at their place, it's going to be more of the same. Two teams that highly respected one another and were picked to finish at the top of the conference this year … I have no doubt that Monday will be another classic.”
