OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Messiah baseball's bats were working the best that they have all season on Saturday afternoon, as the Falcons pounded Stevenson University pitching and won both games of the doubleheader by scores of 11-3 and 15-8.

Dan Wiederrecht was outstanding from the plate on the day, going 4-7 with a grand slam, a three-run homer, 10 RBI, four runs scored, and two stolen bases.

Game One
Quinton Kuntz was impressive on the mound for Messiah in the opener, pitching a complete seven innings while allowing three runs (two earned) and striking out 11 Mustang hitters. The senior's final two innings were not without drama, however, as Stevenson loaded the bases with one out in the sixth and put two runners on with no outs in the seventh, but each time Kuntz was able to buckle down and escape the inning without any runs on the board.

The Falcon bats did not really get started until the sixth inning, as Messiah only had two runs in the first five frames that both came from runners scoring on groundouts, and trailed the Mustangs 3-2. Something sparked in the sixth, though, as four straight singles opened the inning to score one run, tying the game, and load the bases for Wiederrecht, still with nobody out. Tired of plain old singles, the junior center-fielder proceeded to launch a grand slam over the fence in left-center to give the visitors a 7-3 advantage. 

Messiah added another run with one out in the top of the seventh on a Josh Hayner RBI double to give the Falcons a five-run lead. A strikeout for the second out threatened the emergence of another rally for Messiah, but Wiederrecht's power display was not yet done as he deposited another homer to straightaway left field this time, scoring three runs and putting the Falcons up 11-3.

As mentioned, Kuntz was able to retire the side in the bottom of the inning and Messiah came away with the eight-run victory.

Game Two
As slow as game one began, game two was the opposite, as both the Falcons and Mustangs put three-spots on the board in their halves of the opening frame, including a two-run double by Trey Pritchard. In the top of the second, senior shortstop Austin Mellinger belted his first career home run over the wall in center field, giving the Falcons a 4-3 lead.

Messiah broke the game wide open in the third inning, though, scoring nine runs on seven hits. Colin Fry started the onslaught with a solo blast down the left-field line, followed by an RBI groundout from Hunter Brindle and a two-run single for Wiederrecht. Run-scoring singles by Ryan Hentschel (RBI), Fry (2 RBI), and Hayner (RBI) kept the rally going, capped off by a two-run double by Brindle to make it 13-3 in favor of Messiah. Brindle and Fry each recorded three RBI in the inning alone.

The Falcons would add two more runs in the next two innings, including Wiederrecht's 10th RBI of the day on a sacrifice fly to right. The Mustangs were able to put together five runs in the bottom of the sixth, but it would not be nearly enough as Messiah took the 15-8 victory.

With the series win over the Mustangs, Messiah improves to 8-14 on the year and 4-9 in the MAC Commonwealth. Stevenson falls to 15-15 on the season and 6-9 in the conference.

The Falcons will now face a tough task as they travel to No. 18 Shenandoah University for a single game starting at 4:00 p.m. Near the end of last season, the Hornets came to Grantham with a No. 1 overall ranking and the Falcons upended their top-ranked foes by a score of 4-1.