GRANTHAM, Pa. - Runs, runs, and more runs. That was the story Sunday afternoon as Messiah baseball routed Albright College 23-1 to complete a three-game sweep of the Lions to end the conference regular season. It was the most runs that the Falcons have scored in a game since Apr. 8, 2008 when Messiah defeated Eastern University 25-8.

All told, the Falcons outscored the Lions 41-8 over the three contests this weekend, racking up 49 hits and 34 RBI. Sunday's game was by far the most prolific offensively, as Messiah knocked around 23 base hits as 12 different players recorded a hit, including three with four-hit games. Kyle Wickenheiser led the way, going 4-6 with four RBI, a walk, and two runs scored. Ryan Hentschel was 4-4 on the day, scoring three times and driving in three runs. Trent Culver was the other Falcon with four hits, going 4-4 with two RBI. Also of note, JJ Robinson drove in three runs and scored four times, and Quinton Kuntz, after pitching yesterday, came off the bench to record his first collegiate hit and first collegiate RBI in just his third plate appearance in his four seasons in a Messiah uniform.

Messiah improves to 10-11 in the MAC Commonwealth and 15-19 overall, while Albright falls to 5-16 in the conference and 11-21 on the year. The Falcons just missed out on the conference tournament, finishing in fifth-place, just one game back of fourth-place Widener who received the fourth and final berth.

With all the run support, Messiah starter Jordan Nichols did not have to be even close to perfect on the mound, but the junior had one of his best starts of the season, pitching 7 2/3 innings of shutout ball while only allowing five hits and striking out 13. 

The Falcons only scored in four of the nine innings on Sunday, but they made them count, putting up four in the second, eight in the third, seven in the fifth, and four in the ninth. The four-spot in the second came on three infield hits, a walk, and two errors. It was no more small ball for the Falcons in the third, however, as Wickenheiser led off with a home run to left field, his third in the last five games. After four hits and four more runs, including an RBI double by Hentschel and a two-RBI single by Culver, Wickenheiser came around to bat again and stroked a two-RBI triple to deep center field to make it 11-0 in favor of Messiah. He would score on Dan Wiederrecht's second single of the inning one batter later as the Falcons took a 12-0 lead after just three frames.

The error bug bit the Lions again in the fifth, as they committed two more of their seven errors on the day that allowed Messiah to score seven runs on just five hits in the inning. After three innings of scoreless ball, Messiah once again had a big inning in the ninth with all of subs in the game. After two outs and a Robinson free pass, walk-on junior Conner Reyer stepped up and recorded his first collegiate hit, a double down the right field line. Chris Davis followed with a two-RBI single, and eventually scored on Aaron Weber's bases-loaded single a few batters later. With the bases still full, Kuntz came up to the plate and poked an RBI single through the right side to bring the Falcon run total to 23.

The shutout was not meant to be, though, as Albright was able to put one crooked number up on the scoreboard in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out RBI single by Brandon Daubert, but that was all the Lions would get off of Messiah pitching on the day.

The Falcons will close out the 20018 season with a pair of local, nonconference matchups on the road against Elizabethtown and Gettysburg. They will square off with the Blue Jays tomorrow (Monday) at 4:00 p.m., and then end with the Bullets on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.