The Emporia A-16s had enough in them to come back from an early three-run deficit against Olathe East on Friday night.
They just didn’t have enough to hold the lead.
Olathe East rallied for five runs in the top of the sixth, taking an 8-5 victory Friday night in the Wendy’s Classic at Soden’s Grove.
“We’ve got a lot of fight. This team never quits, whether we’re down 30 or up 10,” Emporia A-16 coach Aaron Lechien said. “We just didn’t get the breaks we needed.”
Olathe East scored one in the first and two in the fourth before Emporia finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth.
With one out, Bryan Little was hit by a pitch and Josh Posey and Chase Speer followed with singles to load the bases.
Trevor Turney worked a seven-pitch walk to score the first Emporia run before nine-hole batter Derek Krause came through in the clutch.
“I just knew I was going to get a hit,” Krause said. “I had my mind set on it.”
Sure enough, the Emporia second baseman delivered, lining a 1-1 pitch up the middle to score two runs and tie the score at 3.
“We moved D.K. down in the lineup because he was struggling and not trusting himself at the plate. He needed a little more confidence up there,” Lechien said. “Now, I think his confidence is a lot better. He’s a good hitter — he just needs to trust himself.”
The A-16s tacked on another when Derek Nielsen’s deep fly to left was misplayed, dropping harmlessly for a two-base error.
Jacob Hastings added an RBI groundout to score Krause and make it 5-3.
Emporia starter Dominic Rodriguez gutted it out on the mound to keep the lead another inning.
He ran into trouble after a single and walk gave Olathe East runners on first and second with none out.
It didn’t turn out to be a problem. Rodriguez struck out Kyle Crane and Ryan Revoir looking, then after a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, he retired Jay Cochran on a pop-up to the catcher.
“He competes as a three-sport athlete, and I think he takes that kind of competitive mentality with him,” Lechien said. “Hats off to him. We couldn’t have asked for him to compete any better.”
East took the lead for good in the sixth, scoring five runs on three hits and with the help of two Emporia errors.
The game was ended after six innings because of the time limit.
Six different players had hits for the 16s, including Hastings, who contributed a triple in the third.
Emporia was limited to nine players after Nick Riggs was injured in a car accident earlier in the day.
The A-16s were scheduled to face Gardner at 11 this morning.
Wendy’s Classic
Friday at Emporia
Olathe East 8, Emporia 5
Olathe East 100 205 X — 8 9 1
Emporia A-16s 000 500 X — 5 6 5
W — Ross Ferguson. L — Dominic Rodriguez. Sv — Joe Segraves.
2B — Olathe East: Gage Hartman. 3B — Emporia: Jacob Hastings. SB — Olathe East: Cole Tompkins, Dillon Murray.
Emporia A-16 highlights — Jacob Hastings 1-4, 3B, RBI; Derek Krause 1-2 2RBI, HBP; Trevor Turney 1-2, R, BB; Chase Speer 1-2, R, BB.