FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Quinton Kuntz went the distance on the mound for Messiah baseball in the first game of Thursday's doubleheader with Hood College, but the Blazers pulled out a 1-0 victory in the conference opener for both teams. In game two, Jordan Nichols twirled a three-hit complete game as the Falcons defeated the Blazers 5-2.

Messiah moves to 4-5 on the year and 1-1 in the MAC Commonwealth, while Hood takes their first loss of the season to move to 14-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

Game One
Kuntz threw all seven innings, allowing one run on five hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. However, a leadoff single off the bat of Dylan Beck in the top of the seventh proved costly, as Beck advanced to second on a groundout and then scored on Cam Esposito's two-out single for the only run of the game.

Offensively, Josh Hayner had two of the Falcons' five hits on the day, with Dan Wiederrecht, Adam Janney, and Austin Mellinger providing the other three.

Messiah's best chances came in the first and fourth innings, as they got two runners on base in each frame. In the bottom of the first, Hayner and Wiederrecht knocked back-to-back two-out singles, but Nick Godwin flied out to center to end the threat. In the bottom of the fourth, the Falcons once again looked for a two-out rally as Mellinger singled, Sam Stewart walked, and both runners stole the next base to put runners on second and third. However, Jimmy Kustra struck out swinging, leaving a pair in scoring position.

That was the last time that a Messiah runner reached second base, as over the final three frames, the Falcons' only baserunner was a two-out single from Janney in the sixth. Nate Luscombe earned the complete-game shutout for the Blazers, going seven innings and allowing five hits while striking out ten for his third win of the season.

Game Two
As mentioned, Jordan Nichols was stellar on the mound for Messiah, hurling the Falcons' second complete game of the day and giving up two runs, one earned, on three hits with six strikeouts. Nichols took the shutout into the top of the seventh before Hood was able to scrape together a pair of runs on a walk, two singles, and an error.

The Falcons were also shut down over the first three innings, but that came to an end in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Colin Fry reached base on an error by the second baseman and Nick Godwin walked to put runners on first and second. Adam Janney followed with an RBI single to score Fry to break the scoreless tie and put Messiah up 1-0.

Trey Pritchard and Ben Wilson then reached on back-to-back errors by the corner infielders that each allowed a run to cross the plate to extend the lead to 3-0. Three of the Blazers' four infielders committed errors in the frame. With two outs and runners on second and third, Trent Culver came through with a big knock to score a pair and put Messiah up 5-0.

That proved to be all the Falcons would need, as they went on to win by a final score of 5-2.

Messiah and Hood will play the rubber match of the three-game set down south on Friday at 1:00 p.m.