GRANTHAM, Pa. - Messiah baseball knocked plenty of hits and scored plenty of runs in a doubleheader sweep of Albright College on Saturday afternoon by scores of 10-3 and 8-4.

Before the game, seniors Kyle Schoen, Adam Janney, Colin Fry, Quinton Kuntz, Austin Mellinger, Brandon Shirk, Zach Luman, and Drew Betz were all recognized for their contributions to the Messiah baseball program over the past few seasons.

Messiah improves to 9-11 in the MAC Commonwealth and 14-19 overall, while Albright falls to 5-15 in the conference and 11-19 on the year. The series between the Falcons and Lions will conclude tomorrow with a single game in Reading starting at 1:00 p.m.

Game One
Kyle Wickenheiser continued his hot stretch as of late as he opened the scoring with an RBI single to score Trent Culver in the bottom of the first. Two more Falcons crossed the plate on the second, as Culver came through with a two-out, two-RBI single to make it 3-0 in favor of Messiah. After scoring one run in the first and two in the second, the Falcons kept the pattern going with a three-spot in the third. Wickenheiser started it with a monster home run out to right field and into the tennis courts, and Austin Mellinger and Adam Janney added RBI base knocks to put Messiah up 6-0 after three frames.

The Falcons weren't quite able to push across four runs in the fourth, but did their best as three more crossed the plate to make it 9-0. After cruising through four innings of scoreless ball, Messiah starter Kuntz ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth, as the Lions scored three runs on four hits with the help of a pair of Falcon errors.

However, that was as close as Albright would come as Hunter Brindle added some insurance with an RBI single in the sixth and Betz and Luman each turned in perfect innings in relief to give Kuntz the win on senior day. Culver and Wickenheiser each had three hits and two RBI in the game, and Josh Hayner, Mellinger, and Janney recorded two apiece.

Game Two
After Messiah starter Shirk made quick work of the Lions in the top of the first, Messiah got on the board in the bottom half of the inning as Fry, Wickenheiser, and Dan Wiederrecht banged out back-to-back-to-back RBI singles to put Messiah up 3-0. Lion first baseman Zach Krause cut the deficit to one with a two-run homer in the top of the second, but Messiah came back with three more runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead, 6-2. With runners on second and third and one out, Brindle laid down a sacrifice bunt that ended up scoring two runs, because Culver was off from second with the pitch and did not slow down in the slightest rounding third and sliding into home to beat the throw back from first base. Fry stepped to the plate next, but after two pitches there was a crack of thunder and lightning that sent the game into a delay. About 35 minutes later, Fry came back up and proceeded to launch his third home run of the season.

Each team would add a run in the third to make it 7-3 in favor of the Falcons. After a scoreless fourth, Shirk struggled a bit in in the fifth, allowing a run and leaving two Lions on base as Betz came in for his second relief appearance of the day. Betz quickly ended the inning by picking Noah Beebe off second base. In the bottom of the sixth, Adam Janney singled with two outs, stole second, and scored on an RBI single from Culver to make it 8-4. That score would stand, as head coach Pat Lightle took the seniors off the field one-by-one in the last inning to rounds of applause from the crowd.