READING, Pa. – The Messiah baseball team is the sixth seed in this year's MAC Commonwealth tournament. The Falcons ended the regular season by winning three of four games over the Stevenson Mustangs to finish with a 12-14-1 overall record.
They are set to travel to Reading, Pa. Saturday afternoon where they will take on the third seeded Golden Wolves of Alvernia University to begin their three-game series. If the two teams split the doubleheader, Messiah will host a winner take all game three in Grantham on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. The winner of the series will move onto the MAC Commonwealth semifinals to take on the winner of the series between No. 7 Stevenson and No. 2 Lebanon Valley.
See below for a quick preview of Saturday's MAC Commonwealth Quarterfinal against the Alvernia Golden Wolves.
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No. 6 Messiah Falcons – 12-14-1 Overall, 10-13-1 Conference
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Messiah has been led offensively this season by the trio of
Kasey Caras,
Trent Culver, and
Jarod Bingaman. Caras is batting .386 with 34 hits, eight homeruns, seven doubles, and one triple while driving in 25 runs. Caras is third in the MAC Commonwealth in homeruns and slugging percentage (.761) and fourth in the conference in RBI.
Culver is batting .378 with 28 hits, four homeruns, and three doubles and triples with 18 RBI. Culver has also drawn 18 walks. Culver is tied for the MAC Commonwealth lead in walks, second in the conference with 12 stolen bases and is tied for third in triples and on base percentage (.500).
Bingaman is batting .308 with 28 hits, nine doubles, four homeruns, two triples and 15 RBI. Bingaman has also drawn 15 walks. He is third in the MAC Commonwealth in walks, and fourth in the conference with 30 runs scored, and tied for fourth in doubles and stolen bases (10). The Falcons also lead the conference with 61 stolen bases and are second in the conference with 25 homeruns.
On the mound, the Falcons are led by
Nathan Stein and
Luke Luckenbaugh. Stein has appeared in 11 games with two starts and has a 1-1 record with a 2.25 Earned Run Average (ERA) and 18 strikeouts. Luckenbaugh has appeared in six games with five starts with a 2-2 record and a 2.57 ERA to go along with 21 strikeouts. He is eighth in the MAC Commonwealth in ERA.
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No. 3 Alvernia Golden Wolves – 17-10-1 Overall, 12-7-1 Conference
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The Golden Wolves are led on offense by Mike Ramundo, Mike Cirilli, and Thomas Faggioni. Ramundo sports a .394 batting average with 28 hits, six doubles, two home runs, one triple and 20 RBI. He is sixth in the MAC Commonwealth in batting average.
Cirilli is hitting .381 with 37 hits, 15 doubles, two home runs and 19 RBI. He leads the MAC Commonwealth in doubles, is third in runs scored (31), and fourth in hits. Cirilli also has 13 innings pitched with a 0.00 ERA, five saves, and 17 strikeouts.
Faggioni is hitting .379 with 25 hits, nine doubles, one triple and 15 RBI. He is tied for third in the MAC Commonwealth in doubles and is tied for fourth in on base percentage (.494).
On the mound, the Golden Wolves have two of the best arms in the MAC Commonwealth in Michael Simmerman and Shane Ostrowsky. Simmerman sports a conference best 0.93 ERA over 29 innings with seven appearances and three starts. He also has 25 strikeouts.Ostrowsky is second in the conference with a 1.81 ERA over 44.2 innings with eight starts. He has 27 strikeouts.
When They Met
Alvernia took two of three games from the Falcons during the regular season with one game being called a tie at 10-10 due to darkness.
Luke Luckenbaugh picked up the lone victory in the series for Messiah, throwing five innings in a 5-2 win.
Kasey Caras had a home run and two RBI in the win.
How to Follow
The Falcons will take on Alvernia in a doubleheader Saturday afternoon in Reading, Pa. beginning at 12:00 p.m. Live streaming and live stats links to the action are available on gomessiah.com/sports/baseball/schedule.
MAC Commonwealth Tournament History
The Falcons are looking to win their first MAC Commonwealth championship since the 2012 season where they defeated Alvernia in the championship of that year's tournament. This will be Messiah's first appearance in the MAC Commonwealth tournament since the 2016 season, where they advanced to the championship series.
