By Cody Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
West Lawn, PA — It had to end sometime.
Considering the way the Messiah baseball team had been playing over the past several weeks, however, it just felt all too soon.
On the heels the squad's most impressive performance of the season — a 22-10 blasting of Widener University in Thursday's opening game of the Commonwealth Conference Tournament — the Falcons dropped a 3-6 decision to Elizabethtown College and a 4-5 rematch with the Pride Friday, thus ending the chance at a suddenly palpable Commonwealth Conference crown.
“It's always hard to see the season end,” said Bryan Engle, Messiah head coach. “We've been playing our best baseball down the stretch for about two to three weeks now, but we just didn't have things go our way today.”
Needing to avoid two losses to remain in the league's double-elimination tournament, Messiah (22-18) suffered two near-misses Friday at Owls Field, putting an end to a season that had seemed very much in doubt as much as three weeks ago.
“At this point in the season, you do need to be playing your best because your quality of opponent is very high.” Engle said. “Each error, mental or physical, gets heightened and has a chance to swing the momentum. In both games, we made some crucial mistakes on the base paths. Overall, we didn't catch breaks, we made some mental errors and it unfortunately came at time that hurt us in the end.”
Following the Falcons' double-header loss to Albright College back on Apr. 17, Messiah was on the brink of elimination. Engle's squad then proceeded to rip off six consecutive conference victories, including three straight in a span of 24 hours against a talented Lebanon Valley College team to clinch the final spot in the playoffs.
“I think a lot of people counted us out back then,” Engle said. “We just found a way to keep believing. You can't fault the efforts of our guys. They believed. They believed in themselves, they believed in each other, they believed in everyone.”
Unfortunately, the magic didn't carry over to Friday for the Falcons.
Junior Eric Spring received the pitching start for the team against Elizabethtown (24-14). Spring (4-4), whose gem in the final regular-season game clinched an unheralded playoff spot for the Falcons, gave up six runs in six innings on the mound, taking home the loss for the day.
The left-hander was tagged for 10 hits and two walks on the pitching rubber, while recording four strikeouts.
“Eric Spring was pretty solid for us this season,” Engle said. “He threw decent against a pretty good E'Town team here but they took advantage of two-out hits, especially early. Eric certainly did not throw poorly. He kept us in the game. When he's on, he is the best pitcher for our team, and looking ahead, I think he will have a great senior year. He is tremendously talented and has the ability to be one of the best pitchers in the conference. For him to get the past two starts of playoff-caliber atmosphere and pressure, that will only bode well for him next year.”
Meanwhile, the Falcons' offense — coming off a 22-run outing against Widener — collected a respectable 11 hits for the game but managed just three runs.
Sam Tajiri manufactured the first run of the day for Messiah, as the sophomore led off the game with a single, swiped his team-leading 17th base of the season, and scored on classmate Wes Hollenbach's RBI hit. This gave the Falcons their only lead of the day.
The Blue Jays steadily chipped back with six runs in the middle innings to take the lead over Engle's bunch.
An RBI double by senior Jordan Zimmerman in the sixth inning and a sacrifice fly by Zimmerman in the eighth capped off the scoring in the game for Messiah, but it was the missed opportunities that loomed large in a game that was closer than the final score indicated.
The Falcons batted just 1-10 with runners in scoring position for the game, with the lone hit coming off the bat of Hollenbach in the first inning. Three double plays, including one in the ninth inning, wiped out potential rallies by Engle's squad, forcing the Falcons to play again — this time against Widener — just two hours later with the season on the brink.
Travis Thome (5-4) took the mound for the Falcons in Game Two and tossed seven innings, allowing five runs. The junior gave up 10 hits, one walk, and struck out five, but took home the loss for the day.
“Travis started off a little rough and they hit him hard early, but settled into a groove in the middle innings,” Engle said. “He kept the hitters off-balance and mixed in his off-speed pitches. Like Eric, he has the potential to have a big senior year next season. He is going to be one of the most experienced league starters and we are going to need Travis to throw well — like he did in the latter half of this year.”
Offensively, Messiah recorded three hits in the first four innings of the game, but each time a double play squandered any hopes of a Falcons' rally.
It wasn't until the seventh inning that Engle's squad jumped on the board, putting up three runs to cut the Pride lead from four to just a single run.
Three straight singles by seniors Zimmerman, Dan Etter and Adam Ranck loaded the bases with no one out for the Falcons before a walk, an error and a fielder's choice cleared the bases for the designated visitors.
Down by two runs entering the top of the ninth, Messiah gained a sign of life when sophomore Ryan Brown and senior Jon Shenk led off the frame with singles. Tajiri's sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third base with one out for Brubaker, who drove in Brown with a base hit to center field.
With runners on the corners and one out, the Falcons seemed to be in prime position to take the lead in the ballgame.
It wasn't meant to be however, as Hollenbach's sharply hit ground ball to the shortstop was turned for a game-ending double play.
“Wes hit an absolute rocket, but it was right at the shortstop,” Engle said. “It's just the way it happens sometimes. We hit into seven double plays on the day. That really is unfortunate for us. But, it's just the way the ball bounces sometimes. We hit the ball hard at times, but a lot of the times they were able to turn two against us.”
Messiah tallied 22 hits on the day, notching exactly 11 in each contest, but it was a 3-21 showing with runners in scoring position that limited the Falcons at the plate.
Defensively, the Falcons were fundamentally sound in both games, highlighted by a sensational catch by Zimmerman to save a run in the first inning against Widener (23-11). Engle's squad didn't commit an error in the field all day.
Tajiri led the way offensively for the Falcons, posting six hits in nine at-bats on the day to finish with a team-high .394 batting average for the season. Hollenbach put up a three-hit performance in the first game and Brubaker reached base five times on the day.
“It's disappointing the way it ended,” Engle said. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but unfortunately today we didn't get the wins. I said to the team before the playoffs that I liked our odds because we played ourselves into this. I wish we had played more consistently throughout the season, but you always want to finish strong, and I think we did that over the last several weeks.”
Engle's Falcons will graduate eight seniors — Witmer, Etter, Zimmerman, Ranck and Shenk, plus pitchers Elliot Thomas and Derek Sipe and catcher Alex Lentz.
“The seniors have been a big part of our successes,” Engle said. “Winning the conference in their sophomore year and playing in regionals was great. You want to play in the playoffs every year, and it was great to get there again this year after missing out last year. We'll need to get back to work next year and work hard to be in mix in a great conference like we play in.”
