NCAA baseball team stopped caring about winning to focus on Jesus – then went to the World Series

College baseball nearly saw a miracle at Messiah University this year The Messiah Falcons made a run all the way to the Division III World Series championship meeting on June in one of the majority of historic seasons in initiative history But for coach Phillip Shallenberger and his association the goal wasn't even to get there Their goal was purely to be good Christians CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COM It stopped becoming about like OK can we win a national championship and it started becoming like How can we point people closer to Christ Messiah pitcher Daniel Knight reported Fox News Digital About halfway through this season after a - start the squad underwent a priority shift No longer did they show up to the clubhouse every day with a main goal to win Now they were solely serving Christ We used to sit in the video room and we would show the other pitcher and show what the other crew does and really focus on what they were doing Shallenberger reported And then at about that point we started shifting toward just diving into the Word a little bit more Like How does God want us to lead It was a bit more on the devotionals and bit less on the scouts And that was indeed about the time we started to play a lot better Shallenberger even made his players carry -pound crosses as a gang workout We do that right in the middle of our conference season in between games Shallenberger disclosed But one time Knight did the cross-carrying workout just before a match on April against Eastern He threw eight and a third shutout innings with nine strikeouts in that encounter It marked a shocking turnaround for Knight who got off to a poor start to the season with a ERA It was kind of a wake-up call for me is that you know what the the greater part fundamental thing we can do is glorify God and constantly having that at our forefront if that means sacrificing being at our best physically and the more reason to rely on the Lord and his strength those are the choices that started to be made after that point Knight stated ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER EARLIEST KNOWN EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY NORTH OF THE ALPS 'UNUSUAL FOR THIS TIME'Knight reported the change came on a morning when he was reading scripture and heard God tell him It s not about you ' When I was focused on myself I was becoming depressed And then when I had that shift of God telling me It s not about you ' I saw a change in when I was trying to serve other people that I was receiving more gratification Knight revealed Knight and the Falcons busted out of their - start with a - win against Dickinson College on March From there they became one of the hottest teams in Divison III winning of their next Along the way Shallenberger and his players started adding scripture to their play-call wristbands where they used to place pitches and signs It would say Whatever bunt defense or whatever we craved But Shallenberger also added specific sayings like one was like Surrender your hands' or Jesus over everything mentioned infielder Drew Hurst So I know for me there would be multiple times where either I would make an error or strike out to end an inning and then run on the field and maybe be a little bit p---ed off at myself But he constantly would put those on as a little reminder of why we play this contest and it's not about our performance or what we do win-wise but how we with body language on the field show love to Jesus and the other association and whoever else is watching us The players also studied characters in the Bible with Paul the Apostle becoming a gang favorite They finished the regular season - and then stormed through the Commonwealth Tournament NCAA Regionals Super Regionals and then the first two rounds of the World Series They fell short of taking home the trophy losing to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in two games But Hurst Knight and multiple of Shallenberger's other devoted players will be back next year for a prospective full season of putting faith over wins Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter