GRANTHAM, Pa. – The Cairn University baseball team won, 4-1, on the road at non-conference foe Messiah University in a hotly-contest bout on Tuesday.
Cairn (13-11) and Messiah (16-13) engaged in an anticipated pitcher's duel early on, as Messiah put forth its ace in the form of sophomore Nathan Stein, while Cairn countered with freshman southpaw
Joseph Battaglia (Manasquan, NJ / Brentwood) on the hill. Both pitchers were on cruise control through five innings and only one time throughout those five frames did either team put a runner in scoring position. In the top of the sixth inning, the Falcons went to their bullpen and Cairn took advantage when graduate student
Brian Amantia Jr. (Columbus, NJ / King's Christian) laced a two-RBI triple down the right-field line to give the Highlanders a 2-0 lead. Messiah cut the deficit to one after plating a run in the bottom half of the seventh inning and were threatening to tie or take the lead in the bottom of the eighth with the bases juiced and two outs. The Highlanders got out of the inning courtesy of a web-gem worth play from junior
Brooks Price (Nashville, TN / Franklin Road Academy) who ranged to his backhand and flipped it to senior
Joshua Melchior (Boyertown, PA / Valley Forge Baptist Academy) covering second to get the Highlanders out of the jam. Cairn used that momentum to firmly take control in the top of the ninth, when senior
Dylan Fields (Yorktown, VA / Summit Christian Academy) stepped to the plate in a pinch-hitting scenario with runners on second and third. Fields delivered with a shot off the fence in right field, scoring junior
Tyler Fox (Boyertown, PA / West-Mont Christian) and freshman
Tyler Harris (Oxford, PA / Oxford Area) on a two-RBI triple, the first extra-base hit of his career, to give the Highlanders a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom half of the ninth.
Head Coach
Brett Marks then turned to graduate student
Bryan Stimpson (Monroeville, NJ / Cornell University) who slammed the door in the ninth to record his first save of the season to give Cairn a decisive non-conference victory.
Amantia led the Highlander offense with a pair of hits and matched Fields with two RBIs. Amantia achieved a milestone in the top of the first inning, notching his 100
th career collegiate hit on a bloop single into left field. Battaglia was lights out for the Highlanders on the bump, getting his third win off 6.1 innings, scattering five hits, one run and striking out a pair.
Cairn will be back on the diamond on Wednesday, April 13 when it returns home to Langhorne to welcome Eastern University to the Stillman Complex for the second game of a home-and-home series with the Eagles at 3:30 p.m.
