The Hornets, ranked 19, hosted the Northeastern State RiverHawks and won a 2-1 victory Saturday, April 16.
The victory put them back in the running for a second place tie in the MIAA standings. Emporia State claimed the first game 13-8 and won game two 18-8 in seven innings.
“Now that we are back in second, we just have to take care of business and go out and play hard every single day,” said Levi Ashmore, junior infielder. “We can’t get beat in the effort aspect, and hopefully our talent will take over with how hard we play and go win some baseball games and finish the regular season the right way.”
Emporia was shut out 7-0 in the first game, which was their first shut-out since they lost to Missouri Wester, 8-0, March 19, 2014.
The RiverHawks took an early 3-0 lead in the first inning and added two more in the fourth after back-to-back RBIs from Justin Burgess and Gabriel Wurth. Northeastern added single runs in the seventh and eighth innings giving them a 7-0 victory.
“We faced a pretty good left hander on the mound Friday and he threw well,” said Derek Francis, senior infielder. “We had some opportunities to score and could not capitalize on them, but we ripped our caps to that guy and moved on and did what we needed to do on Saturday, which was win two ball games.”
ESU kept the lead during the entire second game and scored five runs in the eighth inning, making the final score 13-8.
In their final game, the Hornets took an early 3-0 in the first inning, and left them scoreless for the first three innings.
Evan Koehler, senior infielder, doubled down the left field line, sending Wade Hana, junior outfielder, home. Koehler advanced to third and scored back to back on Northeastern errors. Francis hit a solo homerun and put them up, 3-0.
Northeastern scored a run in the top of the third, closing the gap 3-1. Emporia scored two more runs in the bottom of the inning, keeping the score 5-1.
The RiverHawks had two strong innings tying the game, 5-5, going into the bottom of the sixth. Emporia scored one run in the sixth and two in the seventh to gain an 8-5 lead.
ESU had a big eighth inning, scoring five runs and sealing the deal with a 13-5 lead going into the ninth. The RiverHawks scored three runs bringing the final score to 13-8.
“We didn’t have the best weekend we could have, but we found a way to get two wins and win the series,” said Johnny Hodges, sophomore outfielder.
Emporia will battle against Lindenwood University at 6 p.m. tomorrow in St. Charles, Missouri.
