Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia High’s Brian Keisler (35) can’t come up with a pop fly alongside Michael Knight, left, and Corey Bacon, right, during Tuesday night’s doubleheader against Shawnee Heights. Heights defeated the Spartans, 15-4 and 18-1.
Few could have expected that the first inning of the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against Shawnee Heights would be the high point of the night for the Emporia High baseball team.
But after taking a two-run lead after the opening frame of Game One, little else went right for the Spartans the rest of the night, as EHS dropped both games, 15-4 and 18-1.
“The way we started, we played really good,” EHS coach Mike Strickland said. “We just didn’t go ahead and finish it. These are long games, and we’ve got to realize that.”
Emporia High seemed up to the task of at least battling with Shawnee Heights after the way the Spartans responded in the early going in Game One.
Heights tagged EHS starter Jacob Loucks for two runs in the top half of the first inning to take a two-run lead, but the Spartans answered with a four-run output in the bottom of the frame to grab the lead at 4-2.
Derek Nielsen drew a leadoff walk, Zach Gifford hit a hard single down the left-field line and Loucks reached on an error to load the bases for Emporia. Cleanup hitter Michael Knight then came through with a two-RBI single up the middle, plating Nielsen and Gifford to tie the score at 2-all.
After Dominic Rodriguez fouled out to the third baseman, Harrison Stone drew a walk to again load the bases, and this time, No. 7 hitter Josh Maguire knocked a single through the right side for another two-RBI hit, as Loucks and Knight scored to give the Spartans a 4-2 lead.
Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia High's Michael Knight catches Shawnee Heights' Jordan Cooper in a rundown during Tuesday's doubleheader at Soden’s Grove. Cooper was eventually tagged out on the play.
“That felt great,” Gifford said. “We need to be able to feed off that type of inning, because that felt really good.”
However, just two innings later, Emporia was staring at an 8-4 deficit, and the slide only worsened.
In the second, Heights catcher Tyler Baker hit the first of his three home runs in Game One, this one to straightaway center that drew the Thunderbirds to within 4-3. Baker went on to hit solo shots over the right-field fence in the fifth and seventh innings to help Heights pull ever further away from the Spartans, his last coming on a first-pitch offering from Josh Rodriguez to open the seventh.
“You can’t take anything away from that kid,” Strickland said. “He has good hands; he takes his hands to the baseball and has good pop on his bat. He got a hold of three good balls there. He had a good night all night at the plate.”
Heights took the lead for good in Game One with a five-run third inning, then plated two runs in each of the fourth, sixth and seventh innings and a single run in the fifth to turn the game into a rout.
Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia High’s Michael Knight run toward home plate during the first inning of the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against Shawnee Heights at Soden’s Grove.
“It just seemed like when we were ahead, everybody thought, ‘We’ve got this game won,’” said Gifford, who went 2-for-3 with a run scored in Game One. “We have to take it one inning at a time and play seven little games within every game. We have to fight through everything.”
In Game Two, the Spartans never even got the chance to put up much of a fight, as the Thunderbirds built a 13-0 lead by the end of the second inning before scoring another five in the fourth to end the game by run-rule.
Not helping Emporia’s cause were six errors in just four innings, including three errors in the second frame in which Heights sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on seven hits.
“Errors killed us tonight,” junior Corey Bacon said. “We just didn’t play very good team ball tonight.
“After one thing goes wrong, it seems like sometimes we get down on ourselves, and that just opens the door for more bad things to happen. We’ve just got to learn as a team that when one person messes up, everybody else has to pick him up and help out.”
Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia High’s Jacob Loucks pitches during the first inning of Game One during Tuesday’s doubleheader against Shawnee Heights. The Spartans lost both games of the doubleheader, falling 15-4 in Game One before losing 18-1 in the second game.
Emporia’s lone run came in the bottom of the fourth, as Loucks scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Bacon that capped the scoring for the game at 18-1.
Emporia had just four hits in Game Two, with Gifford, Loucks, Knight and Maguire each recording singles.
The Spartans take a break from Centennial League action for a week, as they play a pair of games at the Blue Valley West tournament on Saturday.
Shawnee Heights 15, Emporia 4
Game One
Shawnee Hts 215 212 2 — 15 16 1
Emporia 400 000 0 — 4 8 4
SH — Trevor Worthington and Skylar Hardy (7); and Tyler Baker. Emporia — Jacob Loucks, Brett Lechien (4) and Dominic Rodriguez (6); and Harrison Stone.
W — Worthington. L — Loucks. 2B — SH: Jordan Cooper. Emporia: Zach Gifford, Corey Bacon. HR — SH: Tyler Baker 3.
Shawnee Heights 18, Emporia 1
Game Two
Shawnee Hts 670 5XX X — 18 18 2
Emporia 000 1XX X — 1 4 6
SH — Edward Schroer and David Gauntt. Emporia — Scott Peterson, Corey Bacon (1) and Michael Knight (3); and Jacob Loucks.
W — Schroer. L — Peterson. 2B — SH: Jordan Cooper 2, David Gauntt, Garrett Brower. 3B — SH: Skylar Hardy. HR — SH: Brower.
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