Game 1 Box Score - Game 2 Box Score
By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
St Davids, PA — Judging by Thursday afternoon's results, it was clear the Messiah softball team was eager to get back to playing.
After inclement weather postponed a pair of double-headers and kept the Falcons on the shelf for over a week, Messiah erupted for a total 31 hits against visiting Eastern University Thursday, routing the Eagles by 10-2 and 9-1 scores.
Sophomore pitcher Jocelyn Hickey started the first game of the double-header and, as she has done so repeatedly this season, pitched a gem. She tossed four innings, allowing two hits, no walks and just one run. She struck out eight, including the first six batters of the game — all swinging.
The Falcons' bats provided Hickey with some early support. Freshman Sara Seneca led off the game with a double to left field. Junior Abi Buchler reached on an error, and Seneca scored. Junior Jacki Merkel singled, putting runners on first and second. Freshman Krista Ammon singled to left, scoring Buchler. A double steal saw Merkel thrown out at third, but Ammon reached second. Sophomore Stephanie Schell grounded out, but junior Jess Rhoads singled, scoring Ammon, for a 3-0 lead after the first frame was complete.
The Falcons pushed across a fourth run in the second inning. Junior Ashley Lehman, Sara Seneca and Buchler singled, and Merkel drove home Lehman with a sacrifice fly to center field.
A pair of errors by Eastern (13-11), as well as singles by junior Lauren Seneca and Hickey, scored two more in the third, giving the Falcons a seemingly insurmountable 6-0 lead.
Three more runs came across the scoreboard in the fourth. Merkel tripled, Ammon singled and stole second, Sara Seneca singled and stole second and Rhoads doubled home a pair to increase the lead to 9-0.
Hickey (7-2) was credited with the victory, her seventh of the season. She lowered her ERA on the season to 1.73. Freshman Shayna Weber pitched the game's final two innings, allowing four hits and one earned run.
"Jocelyn pitched pretty well," said Messiah head coach Amy Weaver. "We took her out after four innings because we wanted to save her for the upcoming games. Shayna (Weber) pitched the final two innings and did a good job for us."
The game was eventually halted after six innings and a 10-2 Falcons lead, due to the college mercy rule.
"They had a pretty good pitcher throwing for them," Weaver said. "We picked up the way she pitched, though, and it helped us score 10 runs."
In the second game, freshman Sara Dietrich started, putting her perfect pitching record on the line.
Dietrich allowed a single and an RBI double in the first, giving Eastern a brief 1-0 lead. But it wouldn't last long.
In the bottom of the second, the Falcons scored twice. Schell and Rhoads led off with back-to-back doubles to right field. Lauren Seneca moved Rhoads over to third on a fly out, and Rhoads scored on Dietrich's groundout to second.
Messiah then tacked across four in the third, on four hits: A double by Buchler, a single by Merkel, a triple by Ammon and a single by Schell kept base runners moving.
The Falcons rapped out seven hits and scored four runs over the next two innings to take a 9-1 lead, and effectively ending the game by virtue of the mercy rule once more.
Dietrich picked up the victory, her eighth of the season — against zero losses. She pitched all five innings, allowing two hits, two walks and one earned run.
As a team, the Falcons batted a ridiculous .564 (31 for 55) during the double-header. Rhoads, playing as the team's DH, led the attack, with four hits in five at bats, plus a sacrifice fly and four runs batted in. Ammon and Merkel each collected four hits and three RBI on the day.
"It's hard to tell why the team will hit poorly some days and then other days they'll hit like this," Weaver said. "But we'll take it. It was crazy."
Messiah — ranked seventh in the latest NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll — will have no time to rest before traveling to Widener University for a Commonwealth Conference double-header tomorrow, another event rescheduled due to last week's persistent rains. Game time for the first of two is set for 4 p.m.
