It took a spirited pep talk in between games of Wednesday’s doubleheader against Topeka West, but the Emporia High baseball team managed a split of a pair of games with the Chargers, losing the first game, 10-5, before taking the second, 7-2.
After watching his team play “lackadaisical” in the five-run loss in Game One, EHS coach Mike Strickland met with his team.
“I challenged the kids in between games,” Strickland said. “Our effort wasn’t very good in Game One. We just didn’t come out to play.”
The Spartans (4-14 overall, 4-12 Centennial League) responded in Game Two, erasing an early one-run deficit by scoring in each of the second, third, fourth and fifth innings to walk away with the doubleheader split.
“We really stepped up and played a lot better in the second game,” Strickland said. “I’m happy for that.”
Emporia got strong pitching in Game Two from Robert Keisler and Jared Krause. After Keisler surrendered single runs in each of the first two innings, he and Krause, who pitched the final two innings, teamed to hold Topeka West scoreless the rest of the way, with Keisler getting the win.
“We got great pitching performances out of Robert and Jared,” Strickland said.
Meanwhile, thanks to doubles from Taylor Clark, Cole Armitage and Michael Knight, Emporia managed to score two runs in the second to take a brief lead at 2-1, and then took the lead for good at 3-2 with a single run in the third inning. EHS added a pair of runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to increase its advantage.
In Game One, Emporia actually held a 5-2 advantage through three innings, but after the Spartans were held scoreless in their half of the fourth, Topeka West went off for four runs in the bottom of the fourth to push past Emporia, and then the Chargers added another four runs in the sixth to slam the door shut.
In what would be the deciding inning — the four-run fourth — the Chargers took advantage of a pair of EHS errors, a walk and a pair of hits to push four runs across the plate.
Meanwhile, West reliever Tobi Cowdin held EHS scoreless after Emporia’s three-run third inning to pick up the victory.
“In Game One, we just didn’t play very well at all,” Strickland said.
Keisler led the way offensively for the Spartans, combining to go 4-for-7 at the plate in the twinbill.
EHS is back in action today when it travels back to Topeka to face Highland Park in a doubleheader at 4 p.m. The games were supposed to be played at Soden’s Grove, but the recent rains have made the playing surface there unplayable.
Wednesday at Topeka
Game One
Topeka West 10, Emporia 5
Emporia 203 000 0 — 5 5 2
Topeka West 020 404 X — 10 8 1
Armitage, Loucks (3), Knight (7) and Clark, Stone (5). W — Cowdin. L — Loucks. Rosencutter, Cowdin (3) and North. 2B — Emporia: Clark. TW: Clemmons, Miller.
Game Two
Emporia 7, Topeka West 2
Emporia 021 220 0 — 7 7 1
Topeka West 110 000 0 — 2 5 2
Keisler, Krause (6) and Clark. Sweezy and North. W — Keisler. L — Sweezy. 2B — Emporia: Clark, Armitage, Knight. TW: Cowdin.