GRANTHAM, PA – The York College baseball team saw their 2024 campaign come to a close as the Spartans fell to top seeded Messiah 9-2 in the deciding game of the MAC Commonwealth semifinals. The Falcons advance to face second-seeded Alvernia in the conference finals next weekend.
The Spartans finish the season with a mark of 21-20 while Messiah improves to 34-9.
 
Runs: York 2 – Messiah 9
Hits: York 3; Messiah 11
Errors: York 3; Messiah 0
LOB: York 7; Messiah 7
WP: Josh Nielsen (5-3); LP: Bryce Shaffer (3-4)
 
How It Happened
• The Falcons jumped on the Spartans in the bottom of the second with a pair of runs. Messiah got their first run on a Spartan error with one out. Then Luke Ott lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score an unearned run as Messiah seized the early advantage.
• Messiah got a single run in the bottom of the third as Isaiah Parido homered to right center, pushing the lead to 3-0. The Falcons added another unearned run in the bottom of the fourth. The good news for the Spartans is that it could have been much worse as the Falcons left the bases loaded in that fourth inning.
• York finally broke up Josh Nielsen's no-hitter in the fifth inning. Chris Betler walked to kick off the inning. Connor Pickle singled down the first base line for York's first hit as Betler went to third. Andrew Santarpia plated Betler with a sacrifice fly to right center as he took rightfielder Evan Wagaman up against the wall. The Spartans looked like they were going to get more as Jacob Deimling hit a rocket past Joshua Ammons at first. The ball went into rightfield and the Falcons looked like they had thrown the ball away. Pickle attempted to score but Messiah was able to gather the ball and make the play at the plate for the out.
• The Spartans cut the Falcon lead to 4-2 with another run in the sixth. Lucas Prendergast walked and moved to second on a wild pitch. Robby Elzinga walked and both Spartans moved up with a wild pitch with just one out. Michael Tinneny grounded out to second to score Prendergast but the Spartans wouldn't be able to do any more damage.
• Messiah pushed the lead to 5-2 as Ott homered to dead center with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. The Falcons put the game out of reach in the bottom of the seventh as they pushed across three more runs in the frame. Messiah got their three runs on two hits, one error and one walk. Messiah closed out the scoring with a Drew Hurst single through the right side to score Nick Moyer with the Falcons' ninth run.
 
Spartan Offensive Leaders
Jacob Deimling: 2-for-4
Connor Pickle: 1-for-4
Lucas Prendergast: 0-for-3, run, BB
Chris Betler: 0-for-2, run, 2 BB
 
Spartan Pitching
Bryce Shaffer: 2.1 IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 ER, 1 K, 1 BB, 1 WP (Loss, 3-4)
Jason Cassidy: 3.2 IP, 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 ER, 2 BB
Adam Baeumel: 0.0 IP, 0 hits, 2 runs, 0 ER, BB (faced two batters)
Ethan Kennedy: 2.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 ER, HB
 
Spartan Notes
The Spartans are now 54-15 all-time against the Falcons but Messiah won four of the six match ups this year … the campaign was a tale of two seasons as York went 16-4 in the months of February and March and then went 5-16 over the second half of the season … York finished the year 12-13 on the road … York was 0-for-6 against left-handed reliever Christian Foltz … York was 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position … York finished the year hitting .344 with runners in scoring position … York hit .639 (94-for-147) with a runner on third base and less than two outs … the Spartans finished the year with 123 two-out RBI out of their 295 total RBI … Chris Betler ended the season leading the Spartans in batting average (.423), OPS (1.164), runs (50), hits (63), home runs (9), RBI (45), total bases (98), and on-base percentage (.506) …. Michael Tinneny paced the Spartans with 14 doubles while he hit .383 with 47 runs scored, 59 hits, six home runs and 40 RBI … the freshmen trio of Jason Cassidy, Evan Hughes and Dillon Michaloski made a significant impact on the Spartan pitching staff as they combined to go 9-2 with a 3.09 ERA in 122.2 innings of work … Jacob Deimling picked up his fourth multi-hit game of the year in his ninth start of the campaign … Connor Pickle ended the season with a six-game hitting streak, the longest current streak for the Spartans … Tinneny and Lucas Prendergast each had 13 game hit streaks for York during the year … Pickle finished the year with an active 21 game reached base safely streak while Robby Elzinga had a 20 game streak … Predergast had the longest reached base safely streak during the year with 29 … Tinneny led the squad with 12 multi-RBI games while Betler had 11.
 
Up Next
The loss concludes the season for the Green and White and also closes out the careers of Robby Elzinga, Connor Pickle, Andrew Santarpia, Brett DeWees, Garrett Kile, Teegan Starr and Sam Gardner. The Spartans will kick off the 2025 season in late February.