Grantham, PA - No. 11 Messiah College scored four runs in the fifth inning and Courtney Allen worked in-and-out of a late-inning jam as the Falcons won 4-1 in Game One of the Division III Super Regional against Haverford. Allen collected an RBI in the fifth with a bases-loaded squeeze, and Becky Notte delivered the big blow a batter later with a three-run triple.

The win moved Messiah to 1-0 in the Super Regional best-of-three series, with the two teams scheduled to return to the field tomorrow at 12:00 noon. With rain in the forecast, fans are encouraged to follow GoMessiah.com for any changes to Saturday's schedule.
 
On Friday, under the sun and amid the high temperatures, Messiah used some small ball and power to score all four of their runs in the fifth inning. The frame started out with a one-out bunt single by Shannon Denny, and Carrie Fix followed with a hard single up the middle. Brooke Pompeo then grounded sharply to pitcher Sara Tauriello, who threw to third looking for the force out. But her throw went in the dirt for an error and the bases were loaded for Allen.
 
The situation—bases loaded with one out for Allen and Notte—mirrored that of the third inning when the same duo was retired on a strikeout and a groundout. This time around, Messiah capitalized on the opportunity as Allen pushed a perfect squeeze down the first base line for an RBI single. One pitch later Notte hit a triple high in the air and all the way to the right field wall to bring home three more runs.
 
The four runs felt like a dozen at that point considering the teams were trading zeros into the middle innings. The hit also knocked Tauriello out of the game with a pitching line—seven hits and three earned runs—probably looking a little worse than it actually was. To that point, she also finished with seven strikeouts.
 
Nevertheless, the damage was done and Allen and her teammates finished the job. It wasn't without a little anxiety, however, as a solo home run by Rachel Wolfson in the sixth brought the Fords within 4-1. Worse yet, in their final at-bat the Fords loaded the bases with two outs to bring Wolfson to the plate once more. This time Allen induced a harmless flyout to right field to seal the win.
 
Allen went the distance to move to 25-0. She gave up just four hits and four walks against four strikeouts, and she benefitted from a few defensive gems by her teammates. Among them was a terrific pickoff at first by the other half of her battery, Notte, and a superb grab over the fence in foul territory by shortstop Amanda Jones. The latter of those plays was the second out of the seventh and just before Allen walked back-to-back batters—albeit on very close pitches—to load the bases for Wolfson.  
 
Fix and Pompeo each had multiple hits and combined to go 5-8 while Allen and Notte collected the only RBI for the Falcons. The Fords' four hits were spread out among four different players.
 
As mentioned, the two teams are scheduled to return to the field tomorrow at 12:00 noon. Messiah is looking for one more win to advance to their fifth Division III World Series while Haverford will look to win two games to qualify for their first-ever trip to the NCAA finale.