February 21, 2022 – Emporia State baseball brings steady offense on Monday afternoon to get split with MSU Denver. The Hornets fell 18-9 in game one before rallying to a 10-6 win in game two.
Game 1
In the first inning of game one, the Hornets jumped out to an early lead with
Javier Pena recording an RBI single to score
Sam Chaput. Pena followed this by stealing second to put two runners in scoring position for
TJ Racherbaumer who came through with a two RBI single to boost the Hornet lead to 3-0. In the next at-bat,
Chandler Bloomer homered to right-center to cap off the strong first inning and give Emporia State a 5-0 advantage.
Another run would come for the Hornets as
Javier Pena scored on a bases loaded wild pitch to make the score 6-0 in favor of Emporia State.
MSU Denver finally broke through in the third inning with a Chase Anderson RBI single. After stranding a pair of runners in the third, the Roadrunners capitalized in the fourth. After scoring a run on an RBI groundout, MSU Denver scored five runs with two outs. Another Chase Anderson RBI single with bases loaded trimmed the Hornet advantage to 6-3. In the next at-bat Caleb Albaugh drove a ball to the gap that resulted in a bases-clearing triple to tie the game at 6-6. Albuagh would then score on a passed ball to give the Roadrunners the lead.
The Roadrunners continued to apply the pressure in the fifth inning by scoring another pair of runs which included a Blake Mattey solo home run.
Emporia State was able to respond immediately in the bottom half of the fifth with a one out RBI double from
Dylan Werries to score Racherbaumer. Following a strikeout,
Kase Johnson drove a ball over the left-field wall for a two-run home run to tie the game at 9-9.
Following a scoreless sixth inning by both teams, MSU Denver recorded nine runs in the top of the seventh which included both a three-run home run and a grand slam by the Roadrunners.
Jarrett Seaton went 4.0 innings and allowed 4 earned runs while striking out 6 batters.
Kase Johnson,
TJ Racherbaumer and
Chandler Bloomer each tallied 2 RBI in game one.
Game 2
The second game of the doubleheader started slower than the first with both teams going scoreless through the first two innings. MSU Denver would get in front in the third inning after an RBI triple
from Chase Anderson. After a pair of walks loaded the bases, the Roadrunners would add a run due to a passed ball before a Ross Smith sac fly gave MSU Denver a 3-0 lead. Another sac fly later in the inning would give the Roadrunners a 4-0 advantage over the Hornets.
Emporia State trimmed the lead in half in the bottom half of the third inning thanks to a two-out two-run home run off the bat of Lucas Rich. The Hornets would completely close the gap in the fifth inning after
Sam Chaput launched an opposite field home run to make the score 4-3. Rich would come up clutch again for Emporia State with a two-out RBI double to tie the game 4-4.
After MSU Denver scored another pair of runs in the top half of the seventh, the Hornets responded in outstanding fashion with a five-run bottom half. The scoring was started by Lucas Rich tallying his fourth and fifth RBI of the game with an RBI single to score
Sam Chaput and
Blake Carroll.
Chandler Bloomer recorded a walk with the bases loaded to give the Hornets the lead. Following a pitching change,
Dylan Werries laid down a squeeze bunt that resulted in pinch-runner
Jack Maki being out at home before a wild throw to first base allowed two runs to score which gave the Hornets a 9-6 lead over the Roadrunners.
The final insurance run for Emporia State came in the bottom of the eighth with
Sam Chaput hitting his second solo home run of the game to make the score 10-6.
Chandler Ashby started for the Hornets and recorded 2.1 innings allowing 4 runs.
Noah Geekie recorded his first win of the season in 4.2 innings of relief while allowing only 2 runs and striking out 6 batters. Lucas Rich paced the Hornets with a 3-5 performance that included 5 RBI.
