The Hornet baseball team mounted a comeback at Trusler Sports Complex Saturday, overcoming an early 6-0 deficit to defeat Central Oklahoma by a final score of 10-8.
“Being down 6-0 we could’ve packed it in, called it good and tried again tomorrow,” said Bob Fornelli, head baseball coach. “But we continued to battle and picked up some big hits. I’m proud of my guys.”
The Hornets began to chip away at the UCO lead in the bottom of the second.
Dalton Wheat, senior outfielder, started the inning with a leadoff triple before BJ Dean, junior outfielder, brought him home with a long home run. ESU would tack on another run in the inning, cutting the deficit to 6-3.
Aided by an ESU error, the Broncos forced the Hornet bullpen into action. Central Oklahoma did not find much offense against ESU pitching for the rest of the game however, scoring only 1 earned run in 7.2 innings.
Tanner Cairns, freshman pitcher, came up for the Hornets in the top of the seventh, striking out a batter with the bases loaded to end the inning and putting an end to a Broncos rally.
“Our bullpen’s been fantastic all year,” Dean said. “They’ve held us in the close games and they’ve kept us where we need to be.”
Trailing 8-6 in the bottom of the seventh, Dean hit a homerun, tying the game 8-8.
“I just worked on keeping my hands up and staying tall on my backside and driving the baseball hard,” Dean said. “I think we just stayed confident as a team.”
Garret Brummett, senior pitcher, struck out three in two scoreless innings of work.
“I’m really proud of our bullpen,” Fornelli said. “Brummett was good and that was good to see. He gave up one hit in two innings and pitched really well I thought.”
Fornelli’s counterpart, UCO Manager John Martin, was not as pleased with the performance of his pitching staff but also remarked on the tenacity of the Hornet offense.
“Well obviously our bullpen just didn’t get the job done today and couldn’t protect the leads we had,” Martin said. “But you have to give credit where it’s due and the guys on the other side put together some really good, solid at-bats.”
With the win, the Hornets improved their record to 23-7 with a 15-4 mark in MIAA play. The 15-4 record positions them second in the conference to Central Missouri by a single game.
