Grantham, PA - After splitting a pair of games on Saturday, the Messiah baseball team hosted the Arcadia Knights in the finale of the three-game set. The Knights downed the Falcons 5-2 behind strong hitting and timely hitting. The Knights also took advantage of two costly errors by the Falcons that led to two unearned runs.
Ben Sollenberger was the lone Falcon to register a multi-hit game, collecting two knocks from the leadoff spot.
Steven Ridings pitched eight innings allowing five runs (three earned) on seven strikeouts. Ridings also struck out seven Knights.
The early portion of Tuesday's contest looked to be a pitchers dual as Ridings and Arcadia's starter, Joel Bartoni, traded zeros in the first two frames. In the third, the Knights rallied with two outs to push across their first run. A two-out walk put runners on first and second with two away before Arcadia's leading hitter, Jordan Draude, smacked a long fly ball to the gap in right-center.
Josh Good looked to have room to make the play on the warning track, but the ball bounced off his glove allowing the runner from second to score. Messiah did cut down a run at the plate with a well-executed relay to end the inning, but Arcadia took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the third.
Messiah stranded a runner in both the third and fourth before finally denting the scoreboard in the fifth.
Jon Mullin began Messiah's rally with a single through the left side. A sacrifice bunt pushed Mullin to second before an Arcadia error put Falcons on the corners with one away. Sollenberger then stole second to put two in scoring position for
Ryan Adamus. Like Mullin earlier in the inning, Adamus singled through the left side to bring home the first run.
Joseph Saufley then stepped to the plate and delivered a sacrifice fly to centerfield that brought Sollenberger home and gave Messiah a 2-1 lead.
The Knights wasted no time getting those two runs back. In the top of the sixth, the Knights strung together back-to-back doubles with one out to tie the game at 2-2. After a strike out looking, Arcadia took the lead with an RBI single to center.
In the seventh the Knights scored an unearned run, increasing their lead to 4-2. In the eighth they added yet another insurance run off a squeeze bunt to push their advantage to 5-2.
The Falcons could muster just two hits across the final three frames against Arcadia reliever Zach Manasek, who earned his first save of the season with three shutout innings.
As mentioned,
Ben Sollenberger led the Falcons' offense with a 2-4 effort at the dish. He also scored a run in the loss.
Steven Ridings pitched eight innings in today's contest. It is his fourth straight start in which he completed seven innings (three of which he went eight).
The loss drops the Falcons to 10-14 on the season and 4-5 in the MAC Commonwealth. Messiah will play a single nine-inning game tomorrow afternoon at Shenandoah University tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m. before hosting the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen on Friday afternoon.
