Grantham, PA –
Brandon Shirk dazzled on the mound to lead Messiah baseball to a 1-0 win over Arcadia University in game two to salvage a split with the Knights on Sunday afternoon. A home run by
Hunter Brindle was all the Falcons would need offensively in the victory. In game one, Arcadia recorded 14 hits and eight runs, winning by a final score of 8-1.
Game One
The Falcons were able to get multiple runners on base in the opener, but left 10 men on, including hitting into two double plays with two runners on. Arcadia also took advantage of four Messiah errors, scoring half of their runs in the unearned fashion.
John Griffitts was saddled with the loss for the Falcons, going 5 2/3 innings and giving up eight runs (four earned) on 12 hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
After the Knights put two on the board in the top of the first, Messiah came back with a threat of their own as
Josh Hayner and
Austin Pletcher led off with back-to-back singles to put two on with no out. One out later,
Colin Fry walked to load the bases for
Ben Wilson. However, Wilson grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to retire the side.
Messiah got two runners on with no outs in the second but failed to score again, and Arcadia countered with two more runs in the top of the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, Wilson walked and
Sam Stewart singled up the middle to put two on with no outs for the third time in four tries.
Kyle Schoen then grounded into double play, with Wilson advancing to third.
Jon Mullin was hit by a pitch to put two on with two outs, and
Ryan Adamus came through with the only Falcon hit with a runner in scoring position of the game, a single to center, to cut the deficit to 4-1.
The Falcons left two men on base again in the fifth and sixth innings without scoring any runs, and Arcadia put up a four-spot in the top of the sixth to take an 8-1 lead. That score would stand, giving Arcadia their 13th conference win.
Game Two
The first five innings of the second game flew by quickly, as Messiah starter
Brandon Shirk and Arcadia hurler Jake Lloyd each put up zero after zero on the scoreboard. Before the sixth, the Knights had three hits and just four baserunners, while Messiah had just two hits and three baserunners.
Shirk ran into a bit of trouble in the top of the fifth, coming out with a control problem as he walked the first two batters. Fortunately, the first baserunner was caught stealing on a great throw by catcher
Kyle Schoen. Arcadia managed to get runners on first and third with two outs, but Shirk got Luke Hohenstein to ground out to
Colin Fry at third to end the threat.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth,
Hunter Brindle launched a home run to straightaway center field that brought the crowd to its feet, and put Messiah up 1-0.
Adam Janney also ripped a double to the wall in left center later in the inning, but was stranded on second.
Shirk came back out to finish the game in the seventh, and retired the first batter on a groundout to Hayner at second. Dylan Towey followed with a bloop single to right, but he was caught stealing at second to bring the Knights down to their final out with nobody on base. However, Shirk walked the next three Arcadia hitters to load the bases. After 103 pitches, he was pulled and
Drew Betz was called upon to try and escape the jam. Betz did his job, getting Hohenstein to ground out to Fry at third, and Fry stepped on the base to secure the win for the Falcons.
Shirk's final line was 6 2/3 innings pitched, with no runs on four hits, seven walks, and four strikeouts. More impressively, he shut down an Arcadia offense that came into the weekend leading the MAC in batting average, hits, runs, doubles, home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage.
Brindle's homer was the second of the freshman's young career, and just one of four hits the Falcons managed off of Lloyd. A huge benefactor to the Messiah victory was a clean game defensively, just the fourth time this year that the Falcons did not record an error.
Messiah moves to 11-21 on the year and 5-13 in the conference. However, with the loss in game one, the Falcons have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
The team next plays tomorrow afternoon in a nonconference tilt with Mount Aloysius College at 3:30 p.m.
