Grantham, PA – The Messiah Falcons used solid defense and great pitching to take down the No. 9 Shenandoah Hornets 5-1 on Wednesday afternoon. Brandon Shirk earned his first career win. He went seven innings and allowed just two hits and a single run. John Griffitts earned his third save as the Falcons escaped a couple of late inning jams to upset the Hornets at home.
 
Through the first four innings, the Falcons were held in check by Hornets' starter Tyler Hott. Jon Heisey became the first Falcon base runner when he was hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth inning. After two fly outs, Colin Fry singled to left field advancing Heisey to second and putting runners on first and second. Then Hunter Stewart delivered a single to left, in his first career start, that scored Heisey.
 
After Brandon Shirk escaped a first and third situation in the top of the sixth, the Falcons added on to their 1-0 lead with a four run effort in the bottom of the frame.  Zach Brubaker ripped a ball up the middle for a single to lead off the inning. Jon Mullin then followed with a bunt single before Derek Drake pulled a ball down the left field line for a double that drove in Brubaker and Mullin.
 
The very next batter for Messiah was Joseph Saufley who deposited a ball over the right field fence for a two-run homer. The home run forced Shenandoah head coach Kevin Anderson to go to the bullpen and bring in Randy Tydings. Tydings retired all nine of the Falcons he faced, but the damage was done.
 
After the Falcons' four run outburst, Shirk shut the Hornets down in order in the top of the seventh. Shirk then came out for the top of the eighth, but after he walked the first batter and hit the second one with a pitch, his afternoon was done. Falcons' head coach Pat Lightle went to the bullpen and brought Tyler Moody in to face the heart of the Hornets' order. Moody limited the damage to one-run, while hitting a batter and forcing three groundouts.
 
After the Falcons went down quietly in the home half of the eighth, the Hornets threated again in the ninth. A hit batsman and back-to-back singles loaded the bases with no outs, before John Griffitts was brought in to put out the fire. Griffitts struck out the first batter he faced before inducing a one-six-three double play to end the game and give the Falcons a 5-1 victory.
 
Four Falcon pitchers combined to allow four hits on the afternoon (two of those four hits came in the ninth) and the Messiah defense backed up their pitchers committing no errors for the first time in a game this season.
 
Messiah collected only six hits in the game, with no Falcons collecting multi-hit games. Derek Drake (double) and Joseph Saufley (home run) had the only extra-base hits of the game; they both went 1-4 with a run scored and two runs batted in.
 
The Falcons will play tomorrow afternoon when they travel to Lebanon Valley to take on the Dutchmen, game time is set for 3:30 p.m.