Box Score
Ft. Pierce, FL - The Messiah Falcons (4-8) ended their Florida road trip on a high note, defeating the Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Raptors (4-5) by a 6-3 score. Senior
Wes Hollenbach threw a gem in his first collegiate start and sophomore
Jacob Sprengle's four RBIs fueled the offense.
With six games in four days, the Falcons didn't have many arms left. Head coach Steve DeRiggs gambled and gave the ball to Hollenbach, the team's first baseman who had missed the first five games of the spring break trip with an injury.
Hollenbach – starting on the mound for the first time since his senior year of high school – gave the Falcons eight strong innings, even pitching into the ninth, before turning the ball over to classmate
Zach Adams. Adams retired the final three batters of the game for his third save of the season.
“Wes is a leader and we knew he would be up to the task,” Messiah baseball head coach Steve DeRiggs said. “We knew he would be around the plate, and he fields his position very well. He kept us in the game by just pitching to contact and doing his job. He's an excellent captain for us and he gives us a lot of optimism for the future.”
Offensively, the Falcons gave Hollenbach an early 1-0 lead when senior
Ryan Brown doubled, advanced to third on classmate
John Brubaker's single, and scored on Sprengle's groundout. Messiah added another run in the third inning when junior
Paul Mellinger singled, stole second base, and scored on freshman
Derek Drake's single.
Meanwhile, Hollenbach was masterful at working his way out of jams. He escaped a two-on jam in both the first and third inning, and Brown made a nice tag on a caught stealing attempt of home plate in the second inning. Rutgers-Camden scored unearned runs in both the fourth and fifth innings on Messiah errors, but the Falcons' offense responded with a four-spot in the sixth inning.
“Pitching is very important, but so is fielding the ball and trying to give up the fewest outs possible,” DeRiggs said. “The defense needs to help the pitchers get off the field, and we've made a fairly large number of errors already this season. We need to turn it around and become better with the leather. Fortunately, we were good enough on offense to still win this game.”
Junior
Matt Turman began the sixth inning by reaching on an error and he scored on an RBI double by Brown, who finished the day 2-for-2 with two doubles, a walk, and an RBI. After a momentary lightning delay, Brubaker and sophomore
Jon Lapp drew consecutive walks to load the bases, and Sprengle cleared them with a blast to right field.
Sprengle – who leads the team with 12 RBIs on the season – had eight of his runs batted in during the team's four-game Florida road trip. He has also played a near flawless first base after taking over for Hollenbach last week.
“
Jacob Sprengle has a better understanding of the strike zone now, he has a great swing, and he's very selective,” DeRiggs said. “He was very successful in Florida with eight RBIs, and he's been very important to us as both a hitter and a first baseman.”
With a four-run lead, Hollenbach went back out on the mound and induced impressive double plays to end both the sixth and seventh frames. He retired the Scarlet Raptors 1-2-3 in the eighth inning before Adams took over with two on in the ninth inning. Hollenbach's start was the longest by a Messiah pitcher this season, and he picked up his first collegiate victory, finishing with nine hits allowed, four walks, two strikeouts, and just one earned run allowed.
Adams forced a pair of groundouts, allowed a harmless single, and then retired the Scarlet Raptors' three hitter on a strikeout swinging to end the game. With the scoreless frame, Adams lowered his ERA to 2.61 on the season.
“We ended our Florida trip a much better team than when we started it,” DeRiggs said. “Our players are understanding their roles and doing their jobs. That should definitely help us in the future, especially with conference games looming.”
Messiah begins its conference play with a doubleheader matchup at LVC on Saturday. Game time for the first of the two contests is slated for 12:00 p.m.
