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Messiah Keeps Magical Florida Run In Tact, Sweeps St. Joseph's
Senior Dan Kern went six innings in the second game, tossing a shut-out.

Sanford, FL – The Messiah College baseball team is scheduled to return home from its week-long spring break trip in central Florida tomorrow evening, with an evening flight already booked.

The way things are going, however, head coach Bryan Engle may request a temporary satellite campus to be constructed in the Sunshine state.

Messiah (11-6) ran its Florida win-loss record to 7-1 with a two-game sweep over St. Joseph’s College (New York) Thursday afternoon, thumping the Golden Eagles by 7-0 and 11-1 scores. It was only the latest in a winning streak that has encompassed the Falcons’ last seven contests, while Messiah has put up a remarkable average of 11.3 runs per game during that time.

With just one game remaining on the team’s southern swing, Engle said he was seriously contemplating a longer stay in the region.

“The way we’ve been playing, I’m not sure if any of us want to leave,” he said. “But, in seriousness, I think we all know that where we’re playing doesn’t have nearly as much to do with how we’ve been playing. This trip has helped us in a lot of ways, and I know we’ll all be looking to improve on what we’ve done here once we get back home.”

What Messiah has done is erupt collectively, as the team has won by an average of 7.7 runs in its last seven outings. That average didn’t take a hit Thursday, as senior Chandler Sheaffer (1-1) tossed an absolute gem in his first pitching start of the season in the day’s first contest.

With Messiah’s bats obviously white hot, Sheaffer didn’t allow St. Joseph’s a chance to match offense, going the full game while striking out eight and walking none. The Golden Eagles recorded just four hits, while a lack of a Falcons’ error didn’t give anything away, either.

Engle’s club then had its typical offensive explosion in the span of three innings, as a double from senior Craig Mease highlighted a four-run second inning. Mease’s blast brought two runs home, while a follow-up triple from sophomore Adam Ranck plated another.

Mease was front and center again in the third inning, generating a two-RBI single to push Messiah ahead by a 6-0 count. When a deep, sacrifice fly from senior Kyle Stuckey scored sophomore Jordan Zimmerman in the fifth, the Falcons possessed its final 7-0 advantage.

Things were then firmly in Sheaffer’s right hand, as the senior from Richfield, Pennsylvania allowed just three St. Joseph’s base runners in the game’s final four innings.

Mease led the squad at the plate, going 2-3 with his four RBI. Ranck finished 3-4 with an RBi, while Stuckey went 2-3 with an RBI and two runs scored.

“You’re going to win baseball games if you have pitching, and that was key for us in the first game today,” Engle said. “Chandler was absolutely fantastic for us. To date, it was our best pitching performance of the season. He kept St. Joe’s off-balance and just attacked the zone. Anytime you’ve got an eight-strikeout to no-walk ratio, you’re keeping the ball around the plate a lot. He was just really solid.”

Five of Messiah’s seven runs came courtesy of batters six through nine in the order, while four scores crossed the plate via the Falcons seven-through nine slots.

“That says that we’re getting some really good contributions from the bottom of our lineup, which is another huge key,” Engle said.

With Sheaffer raising the pitching stakes in Thursday’s first game, senior Dan Kern (4-1) responded in kind during the second, tossing a six-inning shutout performance in garnering his fourth win of the season. Kern would strikeout three while walking none, scattering seven hits to the Golden Eagles in harmless fashion.

Messiah again clumped all 11 of its scores in a three-inning stretch, utilizing a two-out single from Ranck to drive in two of a total three runs in the second stanza. Seven consecutive Falcons then reached base in the third inning, helping to another four runs.

A single from Mease then brought home another score in the third, while Ranck blasted another two-RBI base hit. In a game where all of Messiah’s 14 hits were singles, it was Ranck whose shots came at the most opportune times, as the sophomore finished 2-4 with four RBI. Senior Ben Jordan went 3-3 with three runs scored, while sophomore Sheldon Witmer finished 1-1 with three RBI and two runs scored. Sophomore Jon-Mike Richards finished 2-4 with an RBI, while Mease went 1-3 with a run scored and a run batted in.

Sophomore Elliot Thomas came in to relieve Kern in the seventh inning, giving up the lone run of the day via a double and single to St. Joseph’s. He did not walk a batter, however, giving the Falcons’ pitching corps a total 12 K’s to no bases on balls for the day.

Messiah also committed no errors on the day, marking the team’s first flawless defensive outing while in Florida.

“As a staff, we again challenged our guys to put the first game behind them,” Engle said of the pre-game talk for game two. “They responded with seven runs in the first three innings, and again we were fortunate enough to play with a lead. Really, everything was there for us today. As a coach you never want to say you can’t play better, but we were pretty good today. We did the little things. We made the routine plays and we made some pretty good ones, too. We’ve got one tough opponent left before we head back home. Regardless of the result, it’s been a very good week for us.”

Messiah will face Plattsburgh State University (New York) in a single, nine-inning affair Friday to conclude the team’s Florida swing. Game time is set for 10 a.m.