GRANTHAM, Pa. -
Nathan Stein highlighted a doubleheader split with the York Spartans on a cold Saturday in early March. Stein tossed a one-hit shutout in Game One of the double dip as the Falcons earned a 4-0 victory. Game Two had a bit more fireworks with the Spartans earning an 11-9 victory over the Falcons. Despite the split on Saturday, the Falcons won the series after defeating the Spartans 10-6 on Thursday afternoon. Messiah is now 2-1 to begin the MAC Commonwealth season and will be back in action on Monday when they travel to Baltimore to take on Johns Hopkins in non-conference play at 4:00 p.m.
At the dish,
Evan Wagaman went 3-6 on the day with four RBI and a stolen base while
Joshua Ammons went 4-4 in Game Two with a double, three runs scored, and a pair of runs batted in.
Game One - Messiah defeats York - 4-0
Nathan Stein was phenomenal in a 4-0 shutout for the Messiah baseball team over the York Spartans in Game One of a doubleheader on Saturday. Carrying a no-hitter into the top of the seventh inning, Stein earned the shutout one-hitter after a seeing-eye single snuck through the middle with one away in the seventh. Despite the base hit, Stein was superb, walking just one batter and keeping his pitch count down throughout the afternoon, needing just 80 pitches to earn the victory.
At the dish,
Evan Wagaman got the Falcons on the board in the second inning with an RBI single, driving home
Sam Zercher. Messiah added three insurance runs in the fifth with a single from Zercher driving home a run and
Isaiah Parido roping a two-run double off the right-field wall to help Messiah to the 4-0 victory.
Sam Zercher and
Dustin Isanogle each collected two hits in the game. The contest felt a little old school with both Stein and York's starter Brandon Purdy working fast and pitching to contact. In seven frames, the two teams combined for just six strikeouts in a game that lasted one hour and 30 minutes.
Game Two - York defeats Messiah - 11-9
After being shutdown in Game One, the Spartans jumped on the board with five runs in the top of the first to take a 5-0 lead. Messiah began chipping away at the lead with a two-run, two-out single from
Evan Wagaman in the bottom half of the frame to pull the Falcons within three. Messiah would tie things up in the bottom of the third with three runs on two hits.
Dustin Isanogle opened the inning with a hit by pitch and
Dylan Beard ripped a double to left center, chasing Isanogle home from first.
Joshua Ammons followed with a single to center, bringing home Beard. Later in the inning,
Isaiah Parido brought home Ammons later in the inning on a sacrifice fly, tying the game at 5-5 after three innings.
The Spartans used their second five-run inning of the game to take the lead back at 10-5 in the top of the fourth. The Spartans used a pair of costly errors by the Falcons that extended the inning to score four unearned runs and take a 10-5 lead.
Messiah would fight back, scoring two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to pull within one at 10-9. In the fifth,
Evan Wagaman and
Isaiah Parido drove home runs. Just a frame later, the Falcons put a pair of runs on the board to pull within one at 10-9.
After the Spartans added an insurance run in the seventh, Messiah was unable to get anything going in the bottom half of the stanza and fell by the 11-9 final.
What's Up Next
The Falcons will be back in action on Monday afternoon when they take on the undefeated and No. 16 ranked Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in a non-conference contest at 4:00 p.m.
