Box Score
By Cody Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA — Messiah head coach Steve DeRiggs said his goal for Monday's regular-season finale against York College was to get as many pitchers and position players involved in the contest as possible.
The Falcons did just that, and came away with a 5-2 victory in the non-conference game, marking the first time in DeRiggs' four years with the program that Messiah has beaten the Spartans (10-26). The Falcons conclude the regular season with
22 wins — as much as the program won all of last year, including the conference tournament — and this year's team is still 72 hours away from the start of the post-season.
“Our objective today was just to knock some of the rust off,” DeRiggs said. “We don't want to go nine or 10 days without guys playing, and so we went with a predetermined pitching rotation and ended up getting six pitchers in. We got a large number of defensive players into the game, too. We achieved our goal, and we got a win, too.”
After not having played since last Wednesday by virtue of having the league bye over the weekend, Messiah (22-17) started senior Eric Spring, allowing the left-hander to go three innings on the mound. Freshman Paul Broomell took over and chipped in with two innings, before handing the ball to a slew of relievers who added an inning apiece: Senior Josh Hershberger, junior Zach Adams, junior Davin Okerblom and sophomore Drew Frankenfield.
Spring pitched three very strong innings, allowing just one hit and no walks, while striking out three batters. The only batter to reach via hit against Spring was promptly gunned down by junior catcher Ryan Brown when he tried to advance on a wild pitch.
A Messiah rally in the second inning gave Spring (2-2) some run support and the eventual win on the mound. Senior Jamie Scott started a two-out push with a single deep in the hole to the shortstop. Sophomore Paul Mellinger doubled him home and Sean Hart hit an RBI single to give the Falcons an early 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third inning, Brown blasted a three-run home run to right center field to give Messiah a 5-0 advantage. Brown's home run was his team-leading fourth of the season, scoring juniors John Brubaker and Tory Arnesen.
After three innings, Spring gave the ball to Broomell, who threw two shutout frames, not allowing a base runner. Hershberger added a scoreless sixth, and Adams pitched the seventh — allowing two runs but escaping a bases-loaded situation. Okerblom then pitched the eighth without allowing a run, and Frankenfield came in to start the ninth inning and closed out the game, earning his second save of the season.
For the day, the Falcons' six pitchers combined to allow just seven hits and one walk, striking out six batters in the process.
Offensively, Messiah's bats were quiet following Brown's home run, but the five early runs stood for the remainder of the contest. The team finished with 10 hits, batting .417 (5-for-12) with men on base.
“We didn't hit the ball well the last half of the game, but we did capitalize early, capped by Brown's big three-run home run,” DeRiggs said.
Messiah (22-17, 13-5) will now begin the double-elimination 2011 Commonwealth Conference Tournament Thursday, traveling to Owls Field in West Lawn, Pa. to take on Widener University (24-13, 11-7) in Messiah's first night game of the season. Game time for this matchup is slated for 7:30 p.m.
How the Falcons fare in that game will determine their schedule for Friday and possibly Saturday, but the entire playoffs will be played in the three-day span, with the conference champion being determined by Saturday.
“It's going to be a tough challenge,” DeRiggs said. “Widener has 23 wins, and we have 22. It's always an extremely difficult tournament, and one play can mean so much. We just have to be optimistic.”
