Grantham, PA - The Messiah baseball team wrapped up the 2016 regular season with a 7-5 victory over the Wilkes Colonels on Tuesday afternoon. Messiah emptied the bench in the non-conference victory, using 22 players. Drew Betz finished out the game, pitching a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his fifth save of the season. The save ties the single-season record for saves in a single season in Messiah history. John Griffitts was the most recent pitcher to have five saves in a season. Griffitts did it last year.

At the plate, Adam Janney continued his recent hot streak with a 2-4 effort at the plate. Ryan Adamus also collected a two hit game knocking a pair of singles. Joseph Saufley collected the lone multi-RBI game for Messiah with a two-run single in the third inning.
 
The game started with Quinton Kuntz on the mound for the Falcons. Kuntz pitched two quality innings, allowing just one hit and faced just six batters. He faced the minimum thanks to a pair of caught stealing by Sam Stewart behind the dish. Stewart nabbed a runner at second base in the first then a runner at third in the second.
 
Messiah struggled to get the bats going in the first two frames. A leadoff single in both the first and second was all Messiah could muster in terms of base runners in the first and second innings. The Falcons did get the bats going the third. With one away Ryan Adamus singled to left, Ben Sollenberger then followed with a walk to put runers on first and second. After a throwing error on a pick off attempt and a wild pitch Messiah was on the board. Joseph Saufley connected with a two-run single through the right-side two batters later and Messiah took a 3-0 lead.
 
The Colonels got two of those runs right back in the top of the fourth. After a one out walk by Messiah reliever Eric Pisani, Josh Slocum delivered a two-run homer over the left-centerfield wall to cut the Messiah lead to 3-2.
 
Messiah added a pair of runs in the fourth to take a 5-3 lead. Messiah started the fourth with a pair of doubles by Sam Stewart and Austin Pletcher to score their first run. Pletcher then came around to score on a throwing error on Wilkes when they tried to throw out Adamus at second base on a steal attempt.
 
With one out in the fifth Messiah added another run on a double by Kyle Schoen down the leftfield line to take a 6-4 lead.
 
The score remained 6-2 into the seventh inning. With two away in the top of the frame, Jorge Gonzalez ripped a single past the dive of Colin Fry at third base to score a pair of runs. With Wilkes closing to within two at 6-4, Messiah added another run in the bottom of the frame. Kyle Wickenheiser hammed a double off the centerfield wall that scored Eyster from third. Eyster was hit by a pitch earlier in the frame and stole second and third before coming home on the double.
 
Wilkes scored a run on a wild pitch in the eighth, before Messiah brought in their closer, Drew Betz for the ninth. Betz pitched a one-two-three ninth inning to earn his fifth save of the season and give Messiah their 22nd win of the season.
 
Messiah's 22 wins this season are their most in a regular season since they won 22 games in the 2011 regular season. Messiah went on to win the conference title that season.
 
Messiah will next take the field on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. when they begin the MAC Commonwealth Championship with a first round game against Widener. The game will be held at PEOPLEsBank Park, the home of the York Revolutions.