Grantham, PA – A two-out, intentional walk wild pitch scored Josh Hayner from third in the bottom of the 12th inning, and Messiah baseball walked off the second game of today's doubleheader with Lebanon Valley College, 5-4. The Dutchmen took game one by a 2-1 score, with both starting pitchers going the distance, but LVC scoring a pair of unearned runs in the second inning that held up for the victory. Kyle Schoen had a fantastic day at the plate, going 5-8 with a home run and two of Messiah's three RBIs on the day.
 
Game One
 
John Griffitts (2-2) pitched his first complete game of the season, giving up just those two unearned runs on four hits, one costly error, and three strikeouts. Kyle Schoen was the only bright spot offensively in the opener, going 2-3 with a single and a massive solo homer to left field into the wind in the bottom of the sixth.
 
The Falcons had runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the first, but could not capitalize with runners in scoring position, as was the case for the whole game, as seven were left stranded.
 
In the top of the second, the Dutchmen had a runner on second with two outs, before an error on the shortstop put runners on the corners. The next LVC hitter singled through the left side to score the first run. A walk loaded the bases, and then another walk scored the second run of the game, putting Lebanon Valley up 2-0.
 
Schoen's home run in the sixth was all the Falcons could muster in the remainder of the game, and Messiah lost by a 2-1 score.
 
Game 2
 
The Falcons got on the board early in the second game with a small two-out rally. Colin Fry singled to right and Kyle Schoen singled through the right side to put runners on first and third. On the fourth pitch to Dan Wiederrecht, Schoen took off for second, earning a throw from the catcher that sailed into center field. Fry trotted home from third with ease to put Messiah up 1-0.
 
Messiah found some more two-out magic in the bottom of the fourth, as Wiederrecht was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Sam Stewart's RBI single through the hole between first and second.
 
The game had been cruising along fairly quickly until the fifth inning, as both teams put up crooked numbers on the scoreboard. In the top of the inning, LVC manufactured runs on a sacrifice fly and a fielder's choice to tie the game at two. In the bottom half, Jimmy Kustra knocked a one-out single to right and advanced to third on Adam Janney's single. Just like the first inning, Janney took off for second during the next at-bat, eliciting a throw, and this time Kustra was able to beat the throw back home to put Messiah back on top, 3-2. A few batters later, Schoen singled to score Janney, increasing the advantage to 4-2.
 
Jordan Nichols (5.0 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, 1 K) was relieved by Drew Betz at the start of the sixth, and Betz retired the Dutchmen without much trouble. However, with runners on first and second and two outs in the top of the seventh, LVC hit a grounder to the hole between third and short that was too weak to make a play on, loading the bases. The next batter hit a bloop single into the perfect spot in shallow right-center, landing between three players to score two runs and tie the game at four.
 
The Falcons went down in order in the bottom of the seventh, and the game headed to extras.
 
The extra innings were fairly uneventful until the top of the 12th, when Betz came out for his seventh inning of relief and hit two batters with two outs before retiring the side on a flyout to center. The Falcon half of the inning didn't look promising at the start, as two quick outs were made on a lineout and a flyout. Josh Hayner came the the plate for his first at-bat of the day after pinch-running for Schoen in the 10th, and reached on an error by the shortstop. He then proceeded to steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch. With a 3-1 count on Wiederrecht at the plate, LVC decided to intentionally walk him and start over with a new batter. However, the pitch sailed over the head of the catcher and all the way to the backstop, allowing Hayner to sprint home and slide headfirst across home plate for the walkoff win.
 
Betz had five strikeouts in his seven innings of relief to earn the win. Schoen went 3-5 with an RBI and Jimmy Kustra was 2-4 with a run scored for the Falcons.
 
Messiah moves to 9-13 on the year and 3-8 in the MAC Commonwealth. The Falcons finish the three-game series with Lebanon Valley on Monday, with first pitch in Annville scheduled for 3:30 p.m.