Owings Mills, MD - A seventh-inning home run by
Hunter Brindle broke a 6-6 tie, and Messiah baseball defeated Stevenson University 9-7 on Friday afternoon.
The Falcons won despite having less hits (9-12), committing three errors to Stevenson's one, and leaving more runners on base (10-8) than the Mustangs. Messiah was very aggressive on the basepaths, swiping eight bags while Stevenson only stole one.
On the day, Brindle went 2-4 with two RBIs, and
Colin Fry was 2-3 with one RBI.
Jordan Nichols started and went five innings, giving up eight hits and five runs with seven strikeouts.
Ethan Hess pitched the last four innings to earn the win, giving up just four hits and two runs with three strikeouts.
With their fourth-straight win, the Falcons improve to 14-21 on the year and 6-13 in the MAC Commonwealth.
Messiah got on the board right away in the top of the first, as they loaded the bases with one out for
Ben Wilson, who drew a walk to score the game's first run.
Sam Stewart then hit into a fielder's choice that scored another run, before Brindle came through with a two-out RBI single to put the Falcons up 3-0.
Stevenson got one run back in the bottom of the inning, but both pitchers settled in until the fourth, when Messiah got two more on a sacrifice fly and a sacrifice bunt and Stevenson added one run to bring the score to 5-2 in favor of the Falcons.
Nichols ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth, giving up three runs to allow the Mustangs to tie the game at five.
Colin Fry's sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth put Messiah back up momentarily, but Stevenson knotted it back up at six with a run in the bottom of the inning.
Messiah took the lead for good in the seventh, as
Hunter Brindle hit his third home run of the season to put the Falcons up 7-6. They then played some add-on in the eighth, as
Kyle Schoen knocked an RBI single to right field with the bases loaded, and then
Austin Pletcher scored on a wild pitch during the next at-bat.
Hess was able to work around a one-out double in the bottom of the ninth and keep Stevenson off the board, preserving the 9-7 win for Messiah.
The Falcons and Mustangs return to Grantham four a doubleheader to close out the conference regular season tomorrow, with first pitch of game one set for 12:00 p.m.
