Box Score
By Cody Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Winter Haven, FL —With the Messiah Falcons (3-9) currently mired in a five-game losing streak, the team turned to veteran Travis Thome, the senior captain of the team, in Monday's contest against the Spalding University Golden Eagles (5-3).
Thome (2-3) went the distance in one of the finest outings of his four-year pitching career for Messiah, throwing 131 pitches over nine innings in a 5-2 Falcons' win. Most impressively, the right-hander escaped a bases-loaded, no out jam in the ninth inning by inducing a lineout and a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat, earning the win for the day.
“That was a total team performance. It was just a great overall effort,” said Steve DeRiggs, Messiah's head baseball coach.
Thome struck out 14 Golden Eagles without walking a single hitter, a strikeout-to-walk ratio that has been unmatched by any Messiah pitcher as far back as the school's baseball archives date. To put Thome's performance in perspective, a pitcher has thrown a complete game with 14 or more strikeouts and no walks just 40 times in the history of major league baseball – a feat that occurs about once every three years.
“That was the best pitching performance we've had this year,” said Elliot Thomas, Messiah's pitching coach. “You could tell early that (Spalding) was good. They hit the ball hard. For Thome to shut them down for nine innings, it was just gutsy.”
For the Falcons' offense – a unit that has struggled to produce runs for much of the season – a bases-loaded triple by junior John Brubaker scored senior Jamie Scott, freshman Jon Lapp, and junior Sam Tajiri, putting the Falcons up 3-0 in the third inning.
Sophomore Paul Mellinger, the team's most consistent hitter in recent games, drove Brubaker home with a single to give the Falcons a 4-0 lead that would stand for the remainder of the game.
When the Golden Eagles scored two off of Thome in the top of the eighth inning, senior Jordan Snader added an insurance run for Messiah when he drove home Mellinger with an RBI single.
The Golden Eagles threatened in the ninth in the most unorthodox fashion, as the runners reached on a single with an error and a pair of dropped third strikes. A line drive to Mellinger at second base and a trademark Brubaker to Mellinger to Hollenbach double play ended the game.
Thome's performance was essential for a Falcons club that had not seen a win since it began its road trip in Florida. The Falcons play again on Tuesday, a doubleheader in Auburndale, against Oneonta University. Game time for the first of the two games is set for 1:30 p.m.
