YORK, Pa. - The Spartans scored five unanswered runs across the final two innings to erase a four-run deficit and earn the 8-7 walk-off win over Messiah Wednesday afternoon at Jaquet Field. Brandon White's two-out triple in the ninth drove home the game-tying run and White advanced home for the winning run as a throw to third on the relay sailed into the Messiah dugout.

Team records

Messiah 7-11-1

York 19-3

Pitchers of Record

WP: Tim Halasnik (3-0)

LP: Trent Culver 0-2)

How it happened

Austin Denlinger opened the scoring with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. Denlinger fought off a few breaking pitches and waited for a fastball, which he crushed over the left field fence between the flag poles.

The Spartan lead was short-lived as the Falcon bats came alive in the second inning. Dylan Symonds broke up the Rory Costello no-hit bid with a one-out single before Sam Zercher roped a double to right center, which scored Symonds from first.

The Falcons tacked on another run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Trent Culver as Clayton Roberts scored from third. Roberts put himself in scoring position as he stole second and advanced to third on a Spartan throwing error on the play. York had a chance to answer back in the bottom of the frame with the bases loaded, but Jack Barry hit a sharp grounder up the middle to the waiting glove of Derek Freed who flipped to second for the final out.

Messiah went back to work offensively in the fourth when Zercher poked a lead-off homer to left center in the same location of Denlinger's solo shot from the first inning. Costello buckled down following the homer and recorded three-straight strikeouts to end the inning to keep the damage to a minimum. The Spartans got one back for their pitcher in the bottom of the frame as Brett DeWees smoked an RBI single through the left side to score Joe Capobianco from third.

Culver gave Messiah a big lift in the fifth with a three-run opposite field home run that hit off the  top of the fence and bounced over in front of the flag poles. Culver took advantage of a possible fatigued Nick Cavallo who threw 13 pitches in a battle with Kasey Caras in the previous at bat. The Spartans scratched a run across in the bottom of the frame, taking advantage of a Falcon error in the process. Jimmy Wiegers roped a double off the base of the left field wall, over the head of Zercher who committed the error early in the inning, to bring in Denlinger from second.

Caras extended the Messiah lead back to four with a solo home run yet again to left center. With that swing, Caras moved into a tie with Barry for the conference lead with seven homers on the season.

After two scoreless innings, the Spartans broke the trend with a three-run homer by Brendan Martin. Off the bat, the ball initially seemed destined for routine fly out, but it caught a fortunate gust of wind which carried it over the left center field fence for his second homer of the year.

York kept the late inning heroics going as Brandon White delivered with a two-out triple to dead center field to bring in Robby Elzinga for the game-tying run. White drew a throw to third on the relay as he slid in safely. The throw went wide of the bag into the Messiah dugout, allowing White to high-step his way home for the game-winning run.

Up Next

The Spartans will return to action next Friday with a doubleheader at Eastern slated to begin at 1 p.m.

Audio Highlights Courtesy of Darrell Henry - The Voice of the Spartans