GRANTHAM, Pa. – Messiah University's Evan Wagaman hit a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth and the Falcons rallied for an 8-7 win over the Rangers in a non-conference baseball game Friday afternoon.
 
Drew led 7-0 after three and a half innings and 7-3 going into the bottom of the ninth before the hosts completed their comeback.
 
The two sides were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday but due to impending inclement weather the twinbill was shortened to a single game one day earlier.
 
Sophomore Will Fritch put the Rangers on the scoreboard with a two-run homer in the top of the second. It was the team-leading fifth homer of the year for Fritch.
 
Drew went on to score five runs on six hits and an error in the third. Fritch sparked the big inning with a leadoff single before sophomore Raiden Yost and senior Billy Coleman each reached on bunts. After a fielder's choice and an error scored a pair of runs, junior Anthony Hernandez, junior Nate Miller, and sophomore Will Fritch capped the scoring with three straight RBI-singles.
 
In the meantime, senior starter Giovanni DeGiglio was sharp on the mound for the Rangers, allowing just one run on one hit while striking out three through four innings of work. He retired 10 of the first 12 batters and blanked the Falcons for the first 3 1/3 innings. The hosts scored their only run against DeGiglio on a solo home run by Sam Zercher with one out in the fourth.
 
Senior Nick Pellegrino came on to pitch three innings for the Rangers, allowing two runs on six hits as Messiah scored single runs in the fifth and sixth to make it 7-3.
 
Yost took to the mound in the eighth and worked out of a jam in the inning, stranding runners on first and second with an inning-ending groundout. But in the ninth, the hosts rallied with a single, double, and a pair of walks to make it 7-4 before Wagaman's opposite-field homer to end it.
 
Hernandez finished the game 3-for-5 while Fritch, Coleman, and junior Luis Fuentes collected two hits each.
 
The Rangers are back in action on Wednesday, when they host Delaware Valley University in a non-conference tilt starting at 3:30 p.m.