diff --git a/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher.go b/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher.go
index b57a6e5..1cf93e5 100644
--- a/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher.go
+++ b/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher.go
@@ -13,13 +13,14 @@ type SequencePair struct {
 	SubSequence int
 }
 
+func (s SequencePair) IsEmpty() bool {
+	return s.Sequence == nil
+}
+
 func (s SequencePair) IsLessThan(pair SequencePair) bool {
-	if s.Sequence == nil {
+	if s.IsEmpty() || pair.IsEmpty() { // empty pairs are incomparable
 		return false
 	}
-	if pair.Sequence == nil {
-		return true
-	}
 
 	cmp := s.Sequence.Cmp(pair.Sequence)
 	if cmp == -1 {
@@ -62,8 +63,7 @@ type batcher struct {
 	flushCount    int
 	flushSize     int
 
-	// smallestSeq and smallestSubSeq are used to track the highest sequence number
-	// of any record in the batch. This is used for checkpointing.
+	// smallestSeq are used for checkpointing
 	smallestSeq SequencePair
 
 	sync      Sync
@@ -129,8 +129,8 @@ func (b *batcher) updateSequenceNumbers(pair SequencePair) {
 	b.mux.Lock()
 	defer b.mux.Unlock()
 
-	if pair.IsLessThan(b.smallestSeq) {
-		b.smallestSeq = SequencePair{pair.Sequence, pair.SubSequence}
+	if b.smallestSeq.IsEmpty() || pair.IsLessThan(b.smallestSeq) {
+		b.smallestSeq = pair
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher_test.go b/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher_test.go
index 9215da7..23f24f9 100644
--- a/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher_test.go
+++ b/batchconsumer/batcher/message_batcher_test.go
@@ -226,9 +226,8 @@ func TestSequencePairIsLessThan(t *testing.T) {
 		isLess bool
 	}{
 		{left: SequencePair{nil, 0}, right: SequencePair{nil, 0}, isLess: false},
-		{left: SequencePair{nil, 0}, right: SequencePair{big10, 10}, isLess: false},
-
-		{left: SequencePair{big10, 0}, right: SequencePair{nil, 0}, isLess: true},
+		{left: SequencePair{nil, 0}, right: SequencePair{big10, 0}, isLess: false},
+		{left: SequencePair{big10, 0}, right: SequencePair{nil, 0}, isLess: false},
 
 		{left: SequencePair{big5, 0}, right: SequencePair{big10, 0}, isLess: true},
 		{left: SequencePair{big5, 0}, right: SequencePair{big5, 10}, isLess: true},
@@ -250,3 +249,13 @@ func TestSequencePairIsLessThan(t *testing.T) {
 		assert.Equal(test.isLess, left.IsLessThan(right))
 	}
 }
+
+func TestSequencePairEmpty(t *testing.T) {
+	assert := assert.New(t)
+
+	assert.True(SequencePair{nil, 0}.IsEmpty())
+	assert.True(SequencePair{nil, 10000}.IsEmpty())
+
+	assert.False(SequencePair{big.NewInt(10), 0}.IsEmpty())
+	assert.False(SequencePair{big.NewInt(0), 1000}.IsEmpty())
+}