April 15, 2025 – Emporia State baseball used a first inning grand slam and strong pitching to clinch the midweek series over Missouri Western with a 9-2 win on Tuesday against the Griffons.
Missouri Western was able to jump in front of the Hornets in the first frame, scoring two runs on two hits, but Emporia State starter
Gerardo Grijalva stranded the bases loaded to limit the damage.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Hornets drew three walks and loaded the bases with two outs for
TJ Racherbaumer, who lifted his fifth home run of the season for a grand slam to put Emporia State ahead 4-2.
With his grand slam,
TJ Racherbaumer moved into the top ten in Emporia State baseball history with his 24th career home run, tying Ryan Boden, Steve Michael, Cliff Thompson, and Joe Vaskas for ninth.
Grijalva settled in on the mound in the second inning, to just two hits over the next five innings, sealing a career-high 6.0 inning outing.
Emporia State added to their total in the fourth, as
Brady Unrein homered for the eighth time this season to make the score 5-2. In the sixth, the Hornets added three more on RBI singles from
Jovanni Toledo,
Brady Unrein and
Logan Myers to go ahead 8-2.
Noah Steele scored the final run of the game for the Hornets in the seventh, as he reached on a hit by pitch and came around to score on a pair of wild pitches.
Graeme Rios tossed the final 3.0 innings for Emporia State, helping seal the 9-2 win which also clinched the series win over the Griffons.
The Hornets had seven hits with
Brady Unrein going 2-3 and reaching base three times.
TJ Racherbaumer drove in four runs with his first inning grand slam.
Gerardo Grijalva pitched a career-high 6.0 innings and allowed two runs with two strikeouts.
Graeme Rios earned his first save with 3.0 scoreless relief innings, allowing just three hits and striking out one.
Emporia State will hit the road next time out as they begin a three-game series at Northeastern State on Thursday, April 17. First pitch of game one between the Hornets and Riverhawks is set for 5:00 p.m.
