CHESTER, Pa. – Widener baseball once again fought hard against the Messiah University Falcons in their Saturday doubleheader, but they lost game one 5-3 and game two 11-5. The Falcons are receiving votes in D3baseball.com's Top 25 poll.
Saturday also marked Senior Day for the Pride. The seven seniors were
Caleb Horner,
Ryan Weaver,
Alex Savkov,
Nick Barenz,
Xavier Ruley,
Sean Curran, and
Aiden Weitzel.
The Pride ended the regular season with a 13-22 record. They were 8-13 in conference play.
BY THE NUMBERS: GAME 1
- Ryan Bauerle and JP DiGuiseppe each had two hits. Bauerle and Weaver registered one RBI each.
- Curran started on the mound. In 5.2 innings of work, he allowed just five hits and struck out four batters. He threw 106 pitches, which is the third time he threw over 100 pitches in 2024.
BY THE NUMBERS: GAME 2
- Brendan Raven led the team with two runs. Savkov had two RBIs.
- Widener's pitching unit struck out seven batters.
HOW IT HAPPENED AGAINST MESSIAH
Game 1
- On just the second batter of the game, Messiah started their scoring with a solo home run. Both pitchers saw early strikeouts to halt the other's offenses. A Weaver RBI double in the bottom of the second tied the game up at 1-1. The Pride's defense recorded the final out of the top of the third as a Messiah runner tried stealing home. They would take the lead in the bottom of the inning with Bauerle taking home on a passed ball. Bauerle came up big in the fourth as well with an RBI single. After four, Widener led 3-1.
- Following a quiet fifth inning, the Falcons tied the game in the sixth with an RBI single and an RBI sac-bunt. Both starting pitchers finished their afternoons in the sixth inning. Curran threw 106 pitches. Nathan Stein of Messiah threw 125 pitches. Although the first game of the doubleheader was supposed to be seven innings, no one was able to break the tie in seven. Both sides left runners on base, forcing extra innings. The Pride got a double play to retire Messiah in the eighth, but they were unable to answer on offense. The Falcons took over in the top of the ninth with an RBI single and RBI double to lead by two runs. The Pride were retired on a strikeout. Messiah took game one 5-3.
Game 2
- Because the first game went to nine innings, game two was only seven innings. Similar to game one, the Falcons had a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Although Widener's defense only allowed three batters to the plate in the second, and Widener scored two runs in the bottom of the third, the Falcons exploded in the third and fourth innings. The visitors scored 10 runs, five in each inning, to lead 11-2. A passed ball and a Savkov RBI single cut Messiah's advantage to seven. Through four, the score was 11-4.
- Another passed ball gave the Pride another scoring opportunity, bringing in Barenz. Messiah's high-scoring offense slowed down in the back half of the game. Justin Hoffmann checked in at first base in the top of the seventh for Barenz, who got an ovation from the crowd. Even with a Pride runner on base in the bottom of the seventh, the Falcons ended the game, and the series, on a double play. Messiah won 11-5. They took all three games in the weekend series.
