Grantham, PA – The Messiah baseball team completed a three-game series sweep of Hood College by taking both ends of a double-header on Saturday afternoon. Messiah's bats carried Game One, scoring multiple runs in each of the first five innings en route to the 11-0 victory.
In Game Two the runs were a little more difficult to come by.
Steven Ridings held the Blazers in check throwing a complete game and Messiah got just enough offense as Messiah prevailed 4-1.
In Game One the offense of the Falcons might have overshadowed a tremendous starting effort on the mound by
John Griffitts, who threw a complete game shutout allowing just four hits while striking out seven.
Six different Falcons collected multi-hit games, with
Josh Good's 3-3 effort highlighting the hit-parade. Good (2 RBI),
Joseph Saufley (3), and
Jon Mullin (2) collected multiple RBIs for the balanced offensive attack.
In the first, Griffitts worked his way out of a jam stranding two runners on base with a strikeout looking to end the frame without any damage. Messiah jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the inning. Saufley drove home the first run of the game with a double to left center and Good singled down the right field line two batters later to drive home another.
After a scoreless top of the second, the Falcons doubled their lead with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the frame.
Ben Sollenberger drove home
Josh Hayner with a single through the left side with one away and
Jon Mullin scored on a play with two errors earlier in the frame.
Messiah tacked on three more runs in the third on RBI base hits by
Austin Pletcher (double),
Jon Mullin (single), and
Andrew Eyster (single). Messiah added another two runs in the fourth on RBI singles from Good and Mullin to give Messiah a 9-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth Saufley capped off the scoring with a two-run homer over the centerfield wall, scoring
Ben Sollenberger who had singled off the pitcher earlier in the inning.
With an 11-0 lead, Griffitts pitched clean innings in the sixth and seventh to finish his fourth complete game of the season. The shutout is his second of the season.
Messiah failed to score in the sixth, their only scoreless inning of game one.
Game One of the double-header was the first game that Messiah scored multiple runs in at least five separate innings since a 16-10 win over Dickinson on Apr. 8, 2015 (nine-inning game).
As mentioned, the runs were a littler tougher to come by in Game Two.
Steven Ridings pitched a gem, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out 11 in a complete game performance.
Ridings allowed a single runner in each of the first three innings but did not allow a Blazer to reach second base. While Ridings was mowing down the Blazers through the first three innings, the Falcons were struggling to generate the chances they had in Game One. That changed in the bottom of the third when
Andrew Eyster stepped to the plate and drove his first career home run over the left field wall to give Messiah a 1-0 lead. The homer was Eyster's second extra-base hit of his career.
Fast-forward to the bottom of the fifth with Messiah still leading 1-0. After the first two batters grounded out and flied out,
Adam Janney started a two-out rally with a blooper to centerfield.
Joseph Saufley drove Janney home with a double to right center giving Messiah a 2-0 lead. After a walk and an error loaded the bases,
Austin Pletcher delivered a single right back up the middle that scored two more and gave Messiah a 4-0 lead.
The Blazers got their lone run of the afternoon on a double down the right field line in the sixth with two away, but Ridings got out of the inning with a groundball to short.
With a 4-1 lead, Ridings retired the side in order in the top of the seventh for his only three-up three-down inning of the afternoon to complete the game and earn the win for Messiah. The complete game is Ridings' second of the season. In the victory Ridings fanned 11 Blazers, his season high and most in a game since he struck out 12 against Alvernia on Apr. 30, 2014.
On the day Messiah's offense cranked out 15 runs on 22 hits. On the mound Griffitts and Ridings held the Blazers in check, allowing just one run on nine hits while striking out 18 batters.
With the three-game sweep of Hood this weekend, Messiah moves to 9-6 in the MAC Commonwealth and now sits firmly in fourth-place in the conference with two conference series left in the season. Messiah pulls to within one game of .500 at 15-16 overall and has won five straight games including the double-header sweep against Lebanon Valley last Sunday.
The Falcons will next take the field in a non-conference contest on Wednesday when they host Eastern Mennonite University at 3:00 p.m. Next weekend the Falcons take on Stevenson in a key MAC Commonwealth series. Messiah will host Stevenson on Friday before traveling to Owings Mills, Md. for the Saturday double-header.
