Game 1 Box Score - Game 2 Box Score
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA — Is there really anything left for junior Jess Rhoads to add to her resume?
She's won a national championship, leading the Falcons to 23 consecutive wins at the end of her freshman season. She holds virtually every pitching record in school history. And after Tuesday's performance against Albright College, she has two of the three perfect games in Messiah College softball history.
In a five-inning game shortened because the Falcons held a 10-0 lead, Rhoads was perfect. She faced the minimum 15 batters, striking out eight. No hits. No walks. The game was the 14th no-hitter of her career, which is barely half over.
For the season, Rhoads has pitched 29 and two-thirds innings. She's yet to allow a single hit. She has 57 strikeouts and she hasn't allowed a run.
“The amazing thing is that Jess's leg was bothering her before the game,” said Messiah head coach, Amy Weaver. “She said she'd go for as long as she can. We would have taken her out before letting her pitch a complete game, but she had a perfect game going so we had to leave her in.”
It proved to be the correct decision. The Falcons provided Rhoads with an early 2-0 lead on freshman Krista Ammon's two-run triple in the bottom of the first.
In the second, Messiah's bats exploded for their biggest inning of the season. Junior Ashley Lehman began the rally with a one-out walk. Freshman Sara Seneca singled. A double steal and a walk by junior Abi Buchler loaded the bases with one out. Freshman Sara Dietrich singled to right, scoring Lehman and Seneca, and sending Buchler to third. Freshman Krista Ammon walked to reload the bases. Sophomore Stephanie Schell drove in a run with a single, as did Rhoads. Junior Lauren Seneca drove in a pair with a big sacrifice fly, and Lehman concluded the seven-run inning by ripping an RBI single.
“We just hit their pitcher hard,” Weaver said. “Sometimes certain pitchers match up with your hitters. She was their best pitcher and we've faced her before, but we had her number today.”
The Falcons coasted to an easy 10-0 win in their first Commonwealth Conference game of the season.
In the second game of the double-header, the Falcons pitched sophomore Jocelyn Hickey. Hickey threw a complete game, allowing just six hits and a walk for one run. She improved to 3-1 on the season.
The Falcons scored solo runs in the first, second and third innings. In the first, Buchler doubled and came around on a passed ball and a sacrifice fly. In the second, Lauren Seneca singled, advanced on a pair of walks and scored on a grounder to second. Ammon scored the run in the third on Lauren Seneca's two-out double.
“They threw a slower pitcher (in the second game),” Weaver said. “She just kept mixing speeds slower and slower. She kept us off balance. We got three runs but we didn't hit her well.”
The Falcons won 3-0 to improve to 12-2 on the season, including a sweep of Albright in their first two conference games.
“We had no errors in either game,” Weaver said. “The girls had a couple of diving plays in the field. We had all-around good play everywhere.”
Messiah will return to Starry Field for its third and fourth home games of the season Saturday, when Arcadia University visits. Game time for the first of two is set for 1 p.m.
