BALTIMORE, Md. – The Messiah baseball team gave the No. 5 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays everything they could handle on Monday night, but two runs in the bottom of the ninth lifted Johns Hopkins to a 4-3 victory over the Falcons. Messiah fell behind 2-0 after single runs in the second and third by the Blue Jays, but Ryan Friend led off the fifth with his first career home run to get the Falcons on the board. The Falcons pushed across two runs in the sixth to take a 3-2 lead. That lead held until the bottom of the ninth when the Blue Jays collected a double and single to tie the game and later worked a bases loaded walk to push across the game-winning run.
 
Joshua Ammons and Ryan Friend each collected two hits in the contest to lead the offense. On the mound, Christian Woodie got the start and went four innings, allowing two runs on six hits. Despite five walks and two strikeouts, Noah Barrall tossed three scoreless innings in relief. Christian Foltz took the loss, throwing the eighth and ninth, allowing two runs in 1.2 innings.
 
The Falcons will be back in action on Friday afternoon when they take on the Alvernia Golden Wolves at 3:30 p.m. in Grantham.
 
How It Happened
The Blue Jays took an early lead with runs in the second and third innings to build a 2-0 lead. Johns Hopkins scored their first run in the bottom of the second with a solo home run Jimmy Stevens to left-center field. An inning later, Johns Hopkins added a second run with an infield single starting the rally. Later in the frame, a single to left field scored the second run and gave the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead.
 
The lead remained 2-0 until Ryan Friend hammered his first career home run to left field to lead off the fifth inning. Friend's big fly cut the lead in half to 2-1. Messiah threated for more later in the frame after a Josh Jacob single and a Joshua Ammons double put runners on second and third with two outs. A ground out stranded the two in scoring position and the Blue Jays held the one-run lead into the sixth.
 
In the sixth, Messiah started off the frame with a single and a hit-by-pitch. After a strikeout, Ryan Friend singled to the pitcher and the throw to first got away allowing Sam Zercher to hustle around third and beat the throw home to tie the game at 2-2. After a long at bat from Jarrett Gordon, the Falcons' shortstop reached on a fielder's choice where a throw to second base was sent into the outfield. As the ball trickled into the outfield grass, Wagaman came around to score and give Messiah a 3-2 lead. The Falcons continued to threaten for more, but again stranded two in scoring position on an inning-ending groundout to short.
 
The Falcons remained in the driver's seat as the game turned to the bottom of the ninth. With Christian Foltz on the hill, the Falcons got the first out on a strikeout looking. After a battle with Jimmy Stevens, the home run hitter from earlier, Foltz gave up a double down the left-field line on a payoff pitch. After a balk moved the runner to third, a single to center tied the game at 3-3 with one away. An infield pop up gave the Falcons the second out of the frame, but Johns Hopkins loaded the bases with a single and an intentional walk. Foltz got ahead of Dillon Souvignier 0-2, but threw four-straight pitches outside of the zone to issue a walk-off walk. Johns Hopkins earned the 4-3 victory after Messiah gave the Blue Jays everything they could handle for nine innings of play.
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons will be back in action on Friday when they begin a three-game series against the Alvernia Golden Wolves. First pitch with the Golden Wolves is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in Grantham with Messiah heading to Reading for a doubleheader on Saturday at 12:00 p.m.