FORT PIERCE, Fla. - With the series tied at one game apiece, Hood College scored a run in the bottom of the ninth on Friday night to defeat Messiah baseball 5-4 in walkoff fashion in the final game of the Falcons' spring break trip.
Messiah falls to 4-6 on the year and 1-2 in the MAC Commonwealth, while Hood improves to an impressive 15-1 on the season and 2-1 in the conference.
The Falcons were led offensively by
Colin Fry as the senior third baseman notched two of Messiah's five hits, including a home run and a triple, and scored a pair of runs. In contrast, Hood scattered 12 hits over the nine innings.
Messiah got on the board first in the top of the third, as
Trent Culver led off the inning by reaching on an error and eventually came around to score on a two-out RBI single from
Dan Wiederrecht. In the top of the fifth, the Falcons added two more as Culver scored on a passed ball and Fry launched his first home run of the season to give Messiah a 3-0 lead.
After making his way through the first four innings unscathed, Messiah starter
Brandon Shirk ran into some trouble in the bottom of the fifth after two miscues from the Falcon defense (error by Fry and a passed ball). With those two runners on first and second and two outs, Cam Esposito singled in a run and Shirk hit the next batter to load the bases. The senior appeared to be a bit rattled, as he walked the next batter to force in a run and cut the Messiah lead to 3-2. Both of Hood's runs in the inning were unearned.
Zach Luman came in to pitch the sixth and seventh innings for Messiah and was tagged for a run in each as Hood grabbed a 4-3 lead. The second score came on a two-out error, resulting in three of the Blazers' five runs on the night registering as unearned.
The Falcons would tie it up in the top of the eighth as Fry scored from third on a passed ball, the second such score of the game for Messiah, to knot it at four apiece. However, in the bottom of the ninth, Esposito led off with a double, advanced to third on a Dylan Beck single, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Derek Friend to walk off the game by a final score of 5-4.
Messiah now returns to Pennsylvania and will look to get back on track on Wednesday, Mar. 21 when they travel to the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg with a 3:30 p.m. start.
