April 19, 2015-Dean Long hit a grand slam with two outs in the eighth and Cody Bobbit delivered an RBI single in the 11th as Emporia State came back to win 12-11 in extra innings at Ft. Hays State. The game was continued from Saturday when one pitch was thrown before rains set in.
Cooper Langley had a two RBI single in the first as Ft.Hays State took a 4-0 lead after one inning. Wade Hanna answered with a two RBI homer for the Hornets in the top of the second to cut the lead in half. Austin Unrein put the Tiger lead back to four with a two run home run of his own in the bottom of the second. Justin Harris led off the third with a single to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and would eventually score on a sac fly by Evan Koehler. A solo homer by Alex King and three singles gave Ft. Hays State two more runs in the bottom of the third as they took an 8-3 lead.
The Hornets got RBI singles from Tyler Beebe and Harris to go with a sac fly from Long for three runs in the top of the fourth. A solo home run from Andre Vieyra made it 9-6 Tigers with four complete. Neither team scored in the fifth and Bobbit cut the deficit to two with a solo home run in the sixth. Langley answered with a two run homer in the bottom of the sixth to give Ft. Hays State an 11-7 lead.
Levi Parker singled with one out in the ninth and went to third on a two out double by Harris. Dalton Wheat was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Long then tied the game with a grand slam to left center.
Closer Shawn Talkington come on in relief after a lead off double by Kevin Czarnecki in the bottom of the eighth. He got a strike out and a pop out to keep Czarecki at second base and after an error put runners at first and third got a ground out to end the inning. Neither team scored in the ninth or tenth as they remained knotted at 11 heading into the 11th inning. Hanna walked with one out in the top of the 11th and went to second on a single by Jonny Hodges. Bobbit then drove in the game winning run with a single to center that sent Hodges to third. The Tigers avoided any further damage when Hodges was thrown out trying to get back to third on a fly ball to left by Parker. Talkington then got a strike out and two flyouts around a single in the Tiger half of the 11th for the win.
Bobbit was four for five with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored while Harris went four for six with two runs and an RBI. Long was one for five officially with the grand slam, five RBI and a run scored. Talkington threw 4.0 shutout innings, giving up just one hit with five strikeouts.
The two teams will wrap up the series on Monday with a double header starting at 12 noon in Hays.
