The EMU Diamond Royals lost at home to Messiah Thursday afternoon by a score of 13-7. For the third time this year the game was cut short due to loss of daylight and was finalized after seven innings of play.

The loss moves the Royals to 6-7-1 on the season as they head into their first weekend of conference play hosting ODAC newcomer Ferrum in a doubleheader at home Saturday beginning at 11:00am.

The Falcons got on the board in the first two innings with a two-run home run in each as they took the early lead. EMU cut the deficit in half on a two-run double by Brett Lindsay (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) that brought in John Judy (Shanks, W.V./Hampshire) and Daniel Scott (Moneta, Va./Staunton River).

After Messiah added another run in the top of the fifth, Zach Roberts (Stuarts Draft, Va./Riverheads) led off the bottom with a single then worked his way to third base before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Lindsay.

Jaylon Lee (Newport News, Va./Denbigh) kept the inning going with a single, then a walk and hit batsman loaded the bases for the Royals. Judy reached on an error which scored a second run. Corey Willis (Fredricksburg, Va./Massaponax) found a hole on the left side to single in two runs and Jordan Jones (Saxe, Va./Randolph Henry) followed with an RBI single as EMU scored five in the inning.

Another two-run home run added more runs for the Falcons in the sixth inning, then a six spot in the seventh gave Messiah enough runs to win at that point after seven innings when the game was called early.

Jones and Willis finished with three hits each with Willis getting two RBI. Lindsay was 1-2 with a double and three RBI.

DJ Williams (Newport News, Va./Tabb) was the starting pitcher for the Royals for the first time in his career throwing two innings and John Dudley (Raphine, Va./Riverheads) threw a scoreless fourth inning in his first appearance since his sophomore season after missing last year due to injury.