Emporia State baseball battled in a three game series against Rogers State University over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. The Hornets took two wins in the series, giving up one game to the Hillcats.
ESU dominated the Hillcats in the first game of the series on March 15 in a 12-2 run rule game in eight innings. After three scoreless innings from both teams, the Hornets would get the bats going in the bottom of the fourth, scoring eight points and taking the lead 8-0 going into the top of the fifth inning.
The Hillcats would go on to score two points in the top of the second, but it wasn’t enough to catch up with the Hornets. ESU went on to score one in the seventh along with three in the eighth.
In the second game of the series, the Hillcats would come from behind and win after
a tied up game 4-4 going into the top of the sixth. RSU went on to score two points in the top of the seventh. ESU did not respond, ending in a Hillcat win 6-4.
In the series-deciding third game, both teams would go scoreless until the bottom of the fourth. Redshirt freshman Dom Oliverio rounded the bases to score for the Hornets after a triple to left center from senior outfielder Joe Daneff. The rest of the game would go scoreless from both teams with ESU winning 1-0.
The third game win over RSU marks first-year Emporia State head coach Brad Hill’s 900th career win. This comes over the course of coaching at ESU and Kansas State University, where he accumulated a total of 468 victories, as well as at Central Missouri University where he accumulated 418 wins.
These two wins against Rogers State put ESU into a winning record of 14-13 overall, along with a .519 winning percentage. Recent MIAA polls have the Hornets ranked in the No. 8 spot out of the 12 teams participating in the MIAA conference.
After the Hornets 13-8 loss against Northwestern Oklahoma on March 19, ESU is 14-14 on the season and 5-8 in conference play.
The Hornets will return to Trusler Sports Complex on March 22 to battle MIAA foe Northeastern State in a three-game series. The RiverHawks currently sit in tenth place in recent MIAA polls with a conference record of 3-9 and overall record of 12-14.
