GRANTHAM, Pa. — Messiah's Ryan Brown hit a two-out, three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to clinch a Commonwealth Conference playoff spot for his team and send the Elizabethtown College baseball team to its fourth straight one run loss, 7-6, Friday afternoon at Starry Field.

Brown's blast came with the Blue Jays an inning away from evening up their league record at 5-5. E-town's Todd Leister, who spelled Vaclav Hasik in the eighth, got Jamie Scott to ground into a fielder's choice for the first out of the frame, before getting John Brubaker to fly out to left. The junior from Stanhope, N.J., could not see his way out of the inning though. Wes Hollenbach's single made it 6-4 in favor of the visitors, but it brought the winning run to the plate in the form of Brown. The Falcons' catcher fouled a few pitches off before sending a Leister pitch over the wall in right center field to end it.

Despite trailing 1-0 in the third, Elizabethtown (11-14, 4-6 CC) was able to score four times over the middle innings to take a 4-1 lead in support of starter Wayne Leonard. Steve Motika (error) and Dillon Tagle (single) reached base to start the fourth, and Matt Reade's single brought in Motika to knot the game at one.

Later in the inning it was Pat Mulligan with an RBI base knock to give the Jays their first lead. Motika's run scoring single accounted for E-town's run in the fifth and marked the 17th time in 18 games that he has hit safely. During that span, the Kutztown High School product is hitting .438 (32-of-73) with 10 multi-hit games and 17 RBIs.

Brian Verdelli's sixth inning single, one of 13 Elizabethtown hits against Messiah pitching, turned a 3-1 edge into a 4-1 advantage. Ten of E-town's hits came against Falcons hurler Travis Thome, who left after six innings. Thome struck out four and walked one in his ninth start of the year.

Messiah (17-14, 11-2 CC) closed the gap to 4-3 with two runs in the bottom of the seventh, but E-town matched that with two in the top of the ninth to make it 6-3. Reade singled again for his third hit and second RBI of the afternoon. Two batters later, Ryan Donahue picked up an RBI on a ground out to third base.

That left the game in the hands of Leister, in search of his second save this season. It wasn't to be, however, as the second place team in the Commonwealth Conference scored four times in the inning to stun the Blue Jays.

Leonard gave E-town yet another quality outing. He's pitched well in three of his last four starts, but only has one win to show for it. The senior's line was an impressive four hits allowed in 6.1 innings. He did yield two walks and did not strike out a Falcon hitter.

Andrew Gordon, Motika, Tagle and Reade combined for nine of the Blue Jays' 13 hits in the game. Brown and right fielder Sean Hart (2-for-3, RBI) were the only Messiah players to collect multiple hits.

Josh Hershberger (1-0) picked up the win for Messiah, though he allowed two runs (none earned) in his single inning of work.

The battle of the birds is set to continue tomorrow with a doubleheader at Kevin Scott Boyd Stadium in Elizabethtown. First pitch is scheduled for noon.