The Emporia Legion A-16s saw their summer season come to a close Thursday night with a 13-4 loss to the Salina Eagles in the consolation bracket of the Zone Tournament in Junction City.
Emporia had trouble making contact at the plate early on, while Salina jumped all over a somewhat shaky outing from Emporia starter Brian Keisler, and the Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 lead by the fifth inning.
“I’m not sure if Brian was ready to pitch,” Emporia coach Aaron Lechien said. “He didn’t have his best stuff out of the gate, and they took advantage.
“We took a lot of hitable pitches, and even though we want to try and run up the team’s pitch count, that must have been a miscommunication between myself and the team.”
Salina plated a single run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, and then came back with a three-run second inning to make it 4-0.
The Eagles seemed to cool down after that, failing to score a run in either the third or fourth innings. But Emporia could fare no better, as the A-16s could not scratch out any runs either.
Salina came back with another three-run inning in the fifth to make it 7-0, added a single run in the sixth and scored five runs in the seventh to pull away from Emporia.
Emporia’s bats finally came alive in the bottom of the sixth, scoring all four of its runs in the frame, highlighted by a two-run double by Nick Riggs.
“We just seemed to be more aggressive in the late innings,” Lechien said. “We were hitting all of a sudden.”
Josh Posey led Emporia by going 3-for-4 with three singles and a run scored. Dylan Smith with 2-for-4 with a single, a double and a stolen base, Trevor Turney went 1-for-1 with two walks and Jacob Hastings added a single.
It was the second loss of the tournament for Emporia, which ended its run and its season with a X_X record.
“I can honestly sit here and say this team is head and shoulders from where they were at the start of the season,” Lechien said. “This team improved quite a bit from every single person improved.
“They have nothing to hang their heads about. They played hard every day, and that’s all you can ask for. I look forward to reading about them in high school — I expect good things.”