GRANTHAM, Pa. - Messiah baseball concluded their 2018 campaign with a doubleheader sweep of Catholic University on Saturday afternoon, winning by scores of 2-1 and 5-3.
The Falcons finish the year with an overall record of 17-21, while Catholic falls to 27-11 on the year before entering the Landmark Conference Tournament next week.
Game one was a classic pitchers' duel, as Messiah starter
Jordan Nichols and Catholic's Jon Mierzwa both threw complete games, with Nichols allowing just the one run on six hits with seven strikeouts and Mierzwa only gave up four hits and two unearned runs while striking out five.
After the Cardinals got their run in the top of the fourth, the Falcons came back with a pair of fortunate runs in the bottom of the sixth. After reaching third off an error by the catcher on a stolen base attempt,
Josh Hayner scored when the Cardinal third baseman committed an error on a
Dan Wiederrecht grounder to tie the game at one. Wiederrecht would eventually come around to score on a balk, and that run would proved to be the difference in a 2-1 victory for Messiah.
Game two began much like the opener, as
Quinton Kuntz and Ross Dean put up zeros on the scoreboard over the first four innings. Catholic managed to put together three runs on two hits to take the lead in the fifth, but it was Messiah with their second comeback of the day as the Falcons immediately tied it back up at three in the bottom of the inning. Three-straight hits to open the frame, including an RBI triple from
Chris LaRose and an RBI single by
Ryan Hentschel scored the first two runs, followed by a sacrifice bunt later in the inning by JJ Robinson to score Hentschel.
Billy Davis came through in the clutch to be the hero of game two in the seventh inning, as the freshman knocked a one-out, two-run single to give Messiah a 5-3 lead. The Cardinals would load the bases in the eighth and have a runner reach third in the ninth, but the Falcons were able to shut down both threats and come away with the two-run victory.
