Bridgewater, VA - Messiah baseball took care of business in the second game in as many days against Bridgewater College, stifling the Eagle bats to win by a final score of 5-2. The Falcons scored one in the fourth, one in the fifth, two in the sixth, and one in the seventh, while the pitchers managed to only allow two leadoff hitters to reach base and hold the Eagles to just 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
 
Messiah had just two more hits than Bridgewater, 10-8, and the game was played very well, with the lone error coming on the Falcons' side. Freshman Ethan Hess (1-0) secured the first win of his collegiate career, and Drew Betz notched his second save of the season in as many tries.
 
Hess pitched very well in long relief, going 2 1/3 innings and only giving up three hits while keeping the Eagles off the scoreboard. Betz got his money's worth on the save, going 2 2/3 innings and only allowing three hitters to reach base. Kyle Schoen was 1-4 with two RBI, Adam Janney went 2-5 with a double and an RBI, and Jimmy Kustra knocked in a run with a double for the Falcons. Josh Hayner also had a good day, going 2-5 with two hits, a stolen base, and a run scored. 
 
Pitching was the story through the first three innings, as each team kept zeros in the scoring column. In the top of the fourth, Messiah got the first real opportunity of the game, as Josh Hayner led off with a double off the right field fence and Colin Fry walked to put runners on first and second and nobody out for Adam Janney. He would ground into a 4-6-3 double play, but Kyle Schoen stepped up and saved the inning with a first-pitch single through the hole at short that scored Hayner. A strikeout ended the inning, but the Falcons got the one run to go up 1-0.
 
Bridgewater responded quickly with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, on a Chris King double that scored Kenner Berry and Jacob Talley to grab a 2-1 lead. The Falcons would tie it right back up in the top of the fifth, as Kustra scored on a Dan Wiederrecht groundout.
 
Hess worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth, before Messiah's bats made some noise in the sixth. Colin Fry led off with a walk and advanced to third on a ringing double from Adam Janney. After a pitching change, Kyle Schoen brought Fry home with an RBI groundout. One out later, Jimmy Kustra laced a double into the left field corner that scored Janney and gave the Falcons a 4-2 lead.
 
Messiah tacked on one more in the top of the seventh on a bases-loaded single by Janney that scored Wiederrecht, and that was more than enough, as Betz stymied Eagle hitters over the final 2 2/3 innings to give the Falcons the 5-2 victory. Messiah improves to 2-1 on the season, while Bridgewater falls to 2-3.
 
Messiah next plays on Wednesday, March 1 when they make the short drive up to Penn State-Harrisburg for a single game starting at 3:00 p.m.