Game 1 Box Score - Game 2 Box Score
By Cody Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Lakeland, FL — The weather may have been gorgeous, but Saturday's double-header against Brockport State University was one Messiah would surely like to forget.
Fortunately for the Falcons, they have four more games remaining in their current Florida spring break trip to turn their season around.
And the weather continues to look promising.
Other than that, there wasn't much positive to report following a pair of Saturday defeats by 6-3 and 5-0 scores, continuing the team's trend of untimely errors and poor base running. It was the fourth and fifth straight loss for a Falcons team that is now just 2-9 on the season.
“We're a better club than this,” said Steve DeRiggs, Messiah head baseball coach. “We know we are, and we need to just play better.”
Senior Eric Spring (0-2) started the first game on the mound at Henley Field, escaping jams in both the first and second inning to keep the game scoreless before the Golden Eagles slammed a grand slam in the third frame to take a 4-0 lead.
“Eric didn't pitch badly,” said Elliot Thomas, Messiah pitching coach. “He left a couple of mistake pitches over the plate and Brockport capitalized on them. That's what good teams do, so give them credit.”
Two more runs in the fifth inning on a pair of singles, a hit batsmen, and an error gave the Eagles a 6-1 lead.
In relief, sophomore Drew Frankenfield — pitching for the second straight day after having never pitched at the collegiate level — was tremendous for the Falcons. He was brought in with two on and two out in the fifth inning and escaped the jam, then threw two hitless innings, striking out three.
“Drew came in and did his job to perfection,” Thomas said. “He was very effective in a longer relief appearance and kept us in the game.”
Messiah rallied for two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, as juniors Ryan Brown and Wes Hollenbach hit RBI doubles, but a two-on, one-out situation for the Falcons faltered when the next two batters struck out, and Messiah went down weakly in its last chance in the seventh inning.
Game Two started the way the Falcons' season has progressed all year, as big opportunities were met with failed chances. Junior John Brubaker and sophomore Paul Mellinger singled with one out to put the Falcons in position for a big first inning, but a pickoff and an easy groundball out ended the threat.
Junior Tory Arnesen (1-1), on the mound for the Falcons, worked his way into some early trouble in the second inning, giving up two runs (one earned) on three walks, a sacrifice, a hit, a wild pitch, a passed ball and an error, but bore down and recorded a bases-loaded strikeout to keep Messiah down just 2-0.
Unfortunately, the Golden Eagles tacked on another run in the third inning and two more in the fifth against Messiah's bullpen to complete the scoring for the day.
“Tory didn't have his best stuff today, but that's just baseball, and I know he will bounce back next weekend,” Thomas said.
Messiah, playing visitor for the second game, registered just five hits and no runs in falling on the short end of its second shutout of the season. It was the fifth straight loss for a Falcons' team that has struggled mightily on the offensive side of the plate, generating just three runs in 14 innings on the afternoon.
Brubaker and Mellinger were among the lone bright spots at the plate for the Falcons, as the former collected three hits and the latter added two to put his team-best batting average at .368.
Messiah has a much-needed day off Sunday, before the club travels to Winter Haven, Florida to take on Spalding University. Game time for the single nine-inning contest is slated for 12 p.m. Monday.
