GRANTHAM, Pa. – Stevenson University had the bats going early and often as the Mustangs defeated Messiah baseball 19-10 on Friday afternoon.
Stevenson scored their 19 runs on just fourteen hits but received nine walks and had six batters hit to put plenty of runners on base. Designated hitter Mark Terrell had quite a day from the plate, going 4-5 with two home runs, a double, a walk, and eight RBI. For the Falcons,
Dan Wiederrecht had three hits and scored two runs, and
Josh Hayner notched a pair of hits and two RBI.
With the loss, the Falcons fall to 6-14 overall and 2-9 in the MAC Commonwealth. Stevenson improves to 15-13 on the year and 6-7 in the conference.
Stevenson jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first, as with two outs, John D'Aquanno took Messiah starter
Brandon Shirk deep to right center and Terrell doubled home a run two batters later. The Mustangs flashed some more power from the plate in the top of the third, as Billy Small and Terrell slugged back-to-back homers to give Stevenson a 4-0 advantage.
The Falcons were able to finally get something going in the bottom of the third, as
Jimmy Kustra led off with an infield single, stole second, and advanced to third on a groundout.
Trent Culver then came through with a sharp liner straight back towards mound and into center field to score Kustra and cut the deficit to 4-1. Two batters later,
Josh Hayner stung a pitch into the gap in left-center and Culver was able to score all the way from first, but Hayner was thrown out trying to reach third base to end the inning.
The top of the fifth spelled trouble for the Falcons, as Shirk loaded the bases with no outs before giving way to
Matt Wright. Wright did not fare much better, as the Mustangs added four runs before the inning was over to take an 8-2 lead. Stevenson kept on hitting in the sixth, pushing across four more runs, including Terrell's second homer of the game (three-run) to make it 12-2.
Entering the bottom of the ninth, the Mustangs had added seven more runs and the Falcons two to make it 19-4. Messiah was able to put together a rally in the final frame, scoring six runs, but it was too little, too late as Stevenson took the 19-10 victory.
Messiah and Stevenson will continue the series tomorrow with a doubleheader in Owings Mills. First pitch of game one is set for noon.
