ESU Baseball team stays ahead of weather, defeats Newman in 8 innings
By Jesse Newell
Thursday, March 1, 2007
With 72-degree weather and sunny skies at the start of Wednesday’s game, it sure looked as if the weather was finally going to cooperate with the Emporia State baseball team.
Looks turned out to be deceiving.
The Hornets were once again disrupted by Mother Nature on Wednesday, taking a 12-8 victory over Newman in an eight-inning, rain-shortened game.
“You always want to play, but you can’t do anything about (the weather),” ESU outfielder Mark McBratney said. “You’ve just got to control what you can control and do the best you can.”
ESU once again started out strong with the bats, connecting for six hits and scoring seven runs in the first inning.
McBratney did the first damage, following a Conner Crumbliss double with a line-drive home run to left-center.
The junior paused momentarily after exiting the batter’s box to watch it sail over the wall.
“I don’t know if you’d call it admiring it. I looked at it just to make sure,” McBratney said. “I didn’t know at first, to tell you the truth.”
Tim Barger contributed the other key hit for the Hornets, sending a bases-clearing, three-RBI double into the left-center gap to extend ESU’s lead to 7-2.
ESU would need those runs as Ty Reese had a rough outing in his first start in three years.
After undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, the left-handed Reese couldn’t make it out of the third inning, allowing four earned runs and five hits while facing 12 batters.
Fornelli said he wanted to test Reese to see what he could do in the starter’s role.
“Hopefully by late March, early April, he’ll be able to help us a little bit,” Fornelli said.
The Hornets tacked on three runs in the fifth, with two of those coming on Keith Hernandez’s no-doubt homer to left.
The ball was hit so hard that Newman left fielder David Nelson stood still, never even turning around to see if he had a chance to catch it.
The two teams were delayed 53 minutes in the sixth inning because of rain, resuming for two more frames before a downpour forced the end of the contest.
For the second consecutive game, Barger was the offensive hero from the nine-spot in the batting order. On Wednesday, the senior went 4-for-5 with seven RBI, a double and a run scored.
Crumbliss added three hits and two runs scored, while Hernandez contributed two hits, three RBI and three runs scored.
Daniel Waggoner picked up the win for ESU, allowing two earned runs in three innings of work.
The Hornets had 15 hits in all.
McBratney said that his team was starting to make strides offensively.
“We’re close,” McBratney said. “If this weather would cooperate for a couple weeks, I think we’d be there.”
ESU (5-4) is scheduled to play host to North Dakota at 2 p.m. Friday.
ESU 16, NEWMAN 8 (8 innings)
Newman 205 010 000 — 8 9 2
ESU 711 032 02X — 16 15 2
Win — Waggoner (1-0). Loss — Mauricio (1-2).
E — NU: Riddick, Jordan; ESU: Carlson, Barger. DP — Jets 2; Hornets 1. LOB — Jets 3, Hornets 8. 2B — NU: Scripture; ESU: Crumbliss, 3, Marasco, Barger. HR — NU: Scripture; ESU: McBratney, Hernandez. HBP — ESU: Carlson 2, Wolfe. SB — ESU: Marasco.