Box Score
Grantham, PA - The theme of Messiah's series with LVC continued Monday as the Falcons (5-10, 1-2) made three more errors, dropping a 7-5 conference decision to the Flying Dutchmen (7-6, 2-1).
Messiah's loss was its second straight against the Flying Dutchmen after easily taking the first game of Saturday's doubleheader; the Falcons were plagued by the same mistakes in the final two contests, as they continued to leave runners on base and commit errors.
For the series, the Falcons outscored the Dutchmen 28-25 and outhit their conference foes 43-32 but left substantially more runners on base (30-17), committed more errors (11-6), and gave up 14 unearned runs in just 23 innings of play.
“It's frustrating to see the bats so healthy and the gloves so sick,” Messiah head baseball coach Steve DeRiggs said. “We hit the ball hard, but left men on base and just made too many mistakes in the field. Give credit to LVC; they made some nice double plays and we didn't play like we should have.”
The game started all LVC's way, as the Dutchmen built an early 4-0 lead in the second inning against Messiah sophomore pitcher
Jon Lapp, capitalizing on two errors and four hits. LVC picked up two more runs in the fifth inning on a bases-loaded error that led to three unearned runs; in all, Lapp was charged with giving up seven runs in six innings on the mound, although just one was earned.
Messiah had plenty of opportunities to score runs, piecing together one in the third and one in the fourth to cut the score to 7-2. The Falcons also stranded their fair share of runners, leaving two in scoring position in the fourth and sixth inning. Things got even more frustrating when Messiah pulled off the dubious feat of grounding into bases-loaded double plays that ended both the seventh and eighth innings.
The Falcons still made it a game in their last licks in the bottom of the ninth, as senior catcher
Ryan Brown led off with a walk and freshman
Derek Drake singled to put two men on. Senior
John Brubaker's RBI groundout scored Brown and made it 7-5, and Lapp's walk loaded the bases with just one away. Consecutive strikeouts – both looking – ended the game, as Messiah stranded 11 runners in the last six innings of play.
Lapp (0-2) took home the loss for the day.
One of the positive notes for Messiah was the outstanding play of two freshmen – Drake and
Jon Heisey. Drake went 3-for-5, raising his season batting average to .356. Heisey collected three hits for the second straight game, scoring once and driving in one.
“You can't ask for much more than that from the freshmen,” DeRiggs said. “Six hits tells a lot, and I'm really impressed with them for their performance at the plate.”
Messiah plays a makeup game at their home park on Wednesday, hosting Dickinson College in a matchup scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Beginning Friday, the Falcons play the Alvernia Crusaders in the second of six conference series.
“Last year we won all but one series, and the goal is to win every series,” DeRiggs said. “Every series is relative and has an importance of its own, and we're still very much in the picture. We just need to play much better.”
