Box Score
UPDATE: The semifinal game between #1 Alvernia and #3 Elizabethtown on Friday evening has been suspended due to rain. The game will resume at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning at the moment of suspension:
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Alvernia is leading 4-2 in top of the second inning. Runners are on first and second with one out and an 0-1 count to the batter.
Messiah's championship game will start at 2:00 p.m. at the earliest, or 45 minutes after the conclusion of the Alvernia and E-town game.
by Cody Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
West Lawn, PA - For the Messiah Falcons (18-23), it seems that the bigger the stakes, the better they play. The Falcons knocked off the Elizabethtown Blue Jays (20-21) by an 11-5 score in the second round of the Commonwealth Conference playoffs, propelling Messiah to a second straight league championship game.
“I give a lot of credit to the determination of the team in battling through all the adversity we've gone through this year,” Messiah head coach Steve DeRiggs said. “They have an unwillingness to sell themselves short and they refuse to give up. The seniors became a more vocal entity and they stepped up their play on the field as well as their vocal presence.”
Ironically, Messiah beat E-Town by the same 11-5 score in last year's conference championship. This year, the Falcons will enter Saturday's championship game in a similar circumstance: By winning both playoff games so far, Messiah needs to win just one of two to repeat as conference champions.
In this afternoon's game, a dynamic offensive performance made up for a shaky pitching outing, and the Falcons scored seven late runs to overcome a 5-4 seventh inning deficit.
“The offense gives us room by scoring runs,” DeRiggs said. “It gives our pitchers composure out there on the mound, and they don't have to be perfect. We have a very strong offense and they've consistently carried the team.”
The game was scoreless through two innings, with Messiah starter
Zach Adams matching E-Town's Jake Hoffstein early on before the Falcons broke through for four runs in the third inning.
Senior
Sam Tajiri began the rally with a one-out double, and classmates
Ryan Brown,
Wes Hollenbach, and
John Brubaker all came through with huge two-out RBI hits – a double, single, and triple, respectively. Brubaker scored the inning's fourth run when he came home on a wild pitch, giving Messiah an early 4-0 lead against a team they scored just two runs off of in a 14-inning doubleheader just last weekend.
Adams gave up a lone run in the third inning, then ran into some trouble in the fifth inning, issuing consecutive free passes with the bases loaded to make it a 4-3 game. Sophomore
Paul Broomell entered in relief and was able to induce a sacrifice fly, a fielder's choice, and a line drive to escape the jam with the game tied.
Adams lasted four-plus innings, allowing four earned runs on four hits.
Messiah fell behind in the fifth inning when E-Town scored once to make it a 5-4 game, but the Falcons' offense came through big in the seventh frame. Again, Tajiri started the rally with a base hit, Brown came through with a two-run single, and Brubaker and freshman
Derek Drake had RBI hits themselves to give Messiah an 8-5 lead.
The Falcons tacked on three more runs in the eighth inning on an RBI double from Hollenbach and a two-run single from Brubaker that made it an 11-5 game. Meanwhile, relievers
Davin Okerblom and
Galen Halteman combined to pitch 3.2 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit between them.
“We have had to rely on our bullpen more than usual lately, and that has placed more pressure on them,” DeRiggs said. “They've responded well, and they're up to the challenge. We've had some injuries, and it's been nice to have guys step up for us.”
Not to be overshadowed from the Falcons' offensive onslaught was the remarkable performance from the four seniors in the starting lineup. Tajiri, Brown, Hollenbach, and Brubaker combined to go a staggering 11-for-18 at the plate (.611) with three doubles and a triple while scoring nine of the game's 11 runs and driving in nine as well. It was an extremely impressive showing from a group of seniors absolutely determined to bring home a second conference championship in as many seasons.
“I think pressure to perform under certain circumstances like the playoffs will tend to bring out the competitive drives in our players,” DeRiggs said. “We have been fortunate as a coaching staff that this group of young men has been able to elevate their game when it has been needed and counted. We feel our young men have performed better and executed better in playoff pressure, and they have executed very well.”
Tajiri highlighted the seniors with a four-hit day at the plate, plus three runs scored. Brown singled, doubled, scored twice, and drove in three. Brubaker singled twice, tripled, was hit by a pitch, scored two runs, and drove in four, and Hollenbach went 2-for-3 with a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a pair of runs scored, and two RBIs. Mellinger also went 1-for-3 with two runs scored, a hit by pitch, and two sacrifice bunts, meaning the team's top five hitters put forth a .625 on-base percentage for the game.
Given that the night game between Alvernia and Elizabethtown was suspended in the second inning (with Alvernia leading 4-2), the two teams will finish tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. Messiah will play the winner in the championship at 2:00 p.m.
If the Falcons win, they become conference champions for the second time in two years under the helm of DeRiggs. If the Falcons lose the first game, they will play either Alvernia or E-Town in a winner-take-all game on Sunday afternoon.
