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Messiah Walks Off Senior Day With Win; Post-Season Up Next
Senior Kyle Stuckey came up with the game-winner Saturday, helping Messiah to its fourth walk-off win.

Grantham, PA — Following an anomaly of a performance in the day’s opener, the Messiah College baseball team responded to make the most of its home finale in a 6-5, walk-off win over Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Saturday afternoon, sending its eight senior members to the post-season in style.

The visiting Devils dominated the afternoon’s first contest in a 14-1 win, but Messiah (24-15) responded in fitting fashion, claiming its fourth walk-off win at Starry Field on the season — and second straight in such fashion — giving head coach Bryan Engle something to build on for next week’s MAC Commonwealth Tournament.

“I was really proud of the way the guys responded after getting hammered in game one,” Engle said. “We were able to come back and just chip away. We kept battling. It was a great win, and we needed it.”

A win of any sort was not an option in the day’s first game, as Messiah’s pre-game senior day recognition ceremonies were met head-on with a dominating pitching performance from the opposition. FDU senior and pro prospect Ryan Flannery struck out four of Messiah’s first six batters, while freshman hurler Travis Thome (4-2) gave up 11 runs in the first four innings. Fairleigh Dickinson (13-20-1) blew things open in the fourth inning, scoring seven runs off of six hits. The Devils homered three times in the contest, while Messiah’s lone run came in the sixth, courtesy of FDU walking sophomore Dan Etter with the bases loaded.

No Messiah player recorded more than a single hit for the game.

“They flat-out beat us,” Engle said. “They came more ready to play than we did, and they played really well. We didn’t boot the ball, they just hit it extremely well and continued to pour it on.”

With senior day on the verge of being a bust, Engle’s team responded with arguably its most composed outing of the season in game two.

After giving up an initial score to FDU in its first at-bat, Messiah put up two in the bottom of the second, as junior Jonny Ebersole and senior Craig Mease both doubled. The Falcons’ responded to two more Devils’ runs in the third, putting up three in its half off yet another pair of doubles. Ebersole placed a two-bagger to left field, scoring sophomore Jordan Zimmerman, who knocked a lead-off single. Sophomore Jon Shenk then singled to push across Ebersole, while a double from senior Kyle Stuckey scored Shenk.

Now holding a 5-2 lead, Messiah would continue to get tested. FDU put up solo scores in the fourth and fifth innings, the latter of which came via the game’s only home run.

After the Falcons came up empty in its half of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, it appeared that FDU would completely ruin Messiah’s afternoon in the top of the seventh. Sophomore and starting pitcher Sheldon Witmer gave up a pair of singles that placed runners on first and third with one out for the Devils, and Engle brought in senior Ben Jordan to try to get the club out of the jam.

Three pitches later, he did.

Jordan (3-0) forced a four-six-three double play to FDU’s clean-up hitter on a 2-0 count, a series that would earn him the pitching win following Messiah’s magical bottom of the seventh. Ebersole led off that stanza by reaching on an error, while a sacrifice bunt from Shenk pushed Ebersole to second.

Stuckey then served as hero — appropriately on senior day — blasting a double to left field, scoring Ebersole all the way from second.

“Our game two win was neat in a lot of ways,” Engle said. “It was great to have two seniors be involved in such clutch plays. Stuckey, obviously with the game-winning RBI, but Ben Jordan inducing that double-play in the top of the seventh was huge. It was also kind of neat that our first win at home this season came in walk-off fashion (a 4-3 win over Susquehanna University on Mar. 12) and our last one did, too.”

Stuckey led the offense for Messiah in Saturday’s nightcap, going 2-3 with two RBI off his two doubles. Mease finished 2-2 with a pair of RBI as well, while Ebersole scored three of Messiah’s six runs, going 2-3 from the plate with an RBI.

Witmer did most of the pitching work, going six and one third innings while striking out two. Jordan faced just one batter, but it very well could have saved the game.

“We’re not far from where I want to be as we enter the playoffs, but we just have to be more consistent,” Engle said. “We need to be more consistent with our approaches at the plate, something I thought we struggled with today. Our pitching staff also needs to step up to the challenge, and they’ve shown they’re capable of doing so throughout the year. I’m excited to see how we respond. This is the most exciting time of the year.”

Messiah will next play in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament, as an attempted make-up date at Shenandoah University was bagged after rain postponed the game last Friday. The Falcons had rallied to pull within a 4-3 score in the top of the third inning in that contest, as Zimmerman and junior Ben Kirk registered back-to-back home runs — Messiah’s first consecutive jacks of the year.

Sadly, those blasts will not make it into the record books, as the incomplete game will not be completed, or recorded.

The Falcons enter the conference tournament as the league’s two seed, and will face third-seed Albright College Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. Elizabethtown College is the top seed and will face the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between Widener University and Lebanon Valley College. That game will precede the Messiah-Albright tilt at 4 p.m. All MAC Commonwealth Conference playoff games will be played at Owls Field in West Lawn, Pa. The playoffs will conclude Friday and Saturday.