BACK AT IT
After a weekend off from MIAA play due to weather Emporia State is back in action as they travel to Central Oklahoma. With the snow earlier this week in Oklahoma, the series start has been pushed back a day with the Hornets and Bronchos starting their four game, three day series on Saturday in Edmond, Okla. It will be the first game for Emporia State in ten days.
LAST AT BAT
Every starter had a hit and scored a run as Emporia State pounded out 15 hits in a 16-11 win at Newman on Wednesday afternoon in Wichita.Â
The Hornets scored in the first on a solo home run by Dean Long, his sixth in nine games this year. Emporia State then blew the game open in the third when 11 straight batters reached base on the way to an eight run inning and 9-0 lead. The Hornets only had four hits in the inning, but benefited from five walks and two hit batters.
Emporia State added five more runs in the fifth to go up 15-0 as four Hornet pitchers did not allow a run in the first four innings. Newman finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth with four runs and then added five in the sixth to pull within 15-9. The Hornets added an insurance run in the eighth before the Jets finished the scoring with two in the bottom of the eighth.
Long had one hit but three RBI and scored two runs while Evan Koehler matched his one for four, three RBI and two runs scored effort. By design the Hornets used nine pitcher in the nine inning game with only Shane Davies going more than an inning as he got the final out of the sixth before tossing a scoreless seventh.
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THE COACHES
Bob Fornelli is 451-197 in his 12th season at Emporia State and is 757-310 overall in his 19th year as a four year head coach. He is the fourth winningest active coach in NCAA Division II and is 15th in total victories. He has led Emporia State to two Division II World Series appearances in nine NCAA Tournaments. Fornelli has taken teams to the NCAA Tournament 14 times, and was the national runner-up in 2009 with Emporia State and in 2000 while at Ft. Hays State.
Dax Leone is 126-83 in his fifth season at Central Oklahoma. Â
ABOUT THE HORNETS
Emporia State is 6-3 on the season, 1-3 in the MIAA. The Hornets are leading the nation in home runs with 18 in nine games. They are second in the league with a .347 average and 22 stolen bases in 26 attempts. Dean Long is leading the MIAA and ranked seventh in the nation with six home runs. Justin Harris and Levi Parker are tied for the MIAA lead with six stolen bases. Garrett Brummett is 2-0 on the bound with a 0.75 ERA and league best 18 strikeouts.
THE SERIES
The first game of the series will be the 42nd meeting between the two teams with Central Oklahoma holding a 21-20 lead. They have met in the MIAA Tournament each of the last two season with the Hornets eliminating the Bronchos last year in Springfield, Mo. after the Bronchos ended the Hornets season in 2013.
ABOUT THE BRONCHOS
Central Oklahoma is 4-7 on the season and 1-3 in the MIAA. Their pitching staff was ranked last in the MIAA in the latest conference statistics with a 7.07 ERA but only gave up one earned run in a double header sweep of Robert Morris on Tuesday to lower their ERA to 5.65 on the season. Jake O'Brien is batting .366 with three home runs and 13 RBI. Daulton Leiker is 0-1 with a 4.29 ERA in 21.0 innings, 9.0 innings more than anyone else on the squad.
LAST AT BAT VS. CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
Emporia State got their second straight complete game pitching effort of the day in a 12-1 run rule win over Central Oklahoma to advance to the MIAA Tournament Championship Game. Jarrod Miller allowed one run on five hits while Justin Harris led the offense with three hits and three RBI.
The Bronchos scored a run in the second when the only walk that Miller allowed came around to score. After the RBI single made it 1-0, he would face two over the minimum over the final 5.2 innings for the win.
Meanwhile the Hornets had base runners in every inning with multiple runners in five of the seven innings. After leaving the bases loaded in the second and a runner on second in the third, Emporia State finally broke through with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. The Hornets got four runs, three of them unearned in the fifth inning for a 6-1 lead. Dean Long and Toby Cornejo both scored when Aaron Gile reached on a throwing error by the shortstop and Jordan Hodges then delivered a two out, two RBI single.
Cornejo and Price Jacobs each had RBI in the sixth to make it 8-1 before the Hornets blew the game open in the seventh. Wade Hannah reached on an error to start the inning and walks to Hodges and Levi Parker loaded the bases for Harris. He delivered a bases clearing triple to give Emporia State an 11-1 lead and scored on a passed ball to make it 12-1.
Miller retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh, getting the final two by strikeout as the Hornets won by run rule and advanced to the MIAA Championship game for the first time since 2010.
Harris was three for five with three RBI and two runs scored while Long, Jacobs and Gile all scored two runs. Miller had eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings allowing just one run on five hits with a walk.
ON DECK
The Hornets will travel to Hays, Kan. to take on Colorado School of Mines on Wedensday, March 11. The game was added to help make up for the four games canceled in the Central Missouri series last weekend and two of the games canceled against Bemidji State earlier in the season.
HE'S A WINNER
Emporia State head baseball coach Bob Fornelli has 757 career wins and is 451-197 (.696) in his 12th season at Emporia State. Fornelli is the second winningest coach by percentage at Emporia State behind Dave Bingham (557-223, .714 in 14 years) and the third winningest coach at by victories (451) behind Bingham and Brian Embery (458-320, .589 in 15 years). Last year was the Hornets ninth trip to the NCAA Tournament in 11 years and he has twice led Emporia State to the Division II World Series, in 2006 and 2009. He has taken teams to the NCAA Tournament in 14 of his first 18 years as a collegiate coach.
Fornelli, a 1991 graduate of Emporia State, spent seven years at Ft. Hays State where he compiled a 306-113 record and led the Tigers to the NCAA Division II national championship game in 2000 and was in the NCAA regional tournament six times.
Prior to his time in Hays, Fornelli was the pitching coach at Butler County Community College in El Dorado, Kan., from 1991 until 1996. During his tenure the Grizzlies were 195-86 and finished third in the NJCAA World Series in 1994.
Fornelli, a native of Lenexa, Kan., was an honorable mention All-Central States Intercollegiate Conference catcher for the Hornets as a senior after transferring from BCCC. He is married to the former Jill Harris of Madison, Kan. The couple has three daughters - Emma, Rylie and Addison.
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