There were no bad hops to blame, no baseball gods to curse.
After winning the first game against Lansing 12-4 on Thursday, Coach Dick Evans knew his Emporia Blues had earned every bit of its 10-4 loss in the nightcap.
“We’ve lost three games that we really deserved to lose,” Evans said, “and this was one of them.”
Following three straight wins at home in a two-day span, the Blues were left disappointed after struggling in the final game.
The mistakes weren’t limited to a certain area, either.
Emporia pitchers surrendered 13 walks. The normally solid Blues defense committed six errors and three in one inning (the team had just four errors in its previous three games).
“We were terrible,” Emporia catcher Jacob Loucks said. “We lost the fight. I don’t know where it went.”
Evans also was left frustrated with his team’s situational hitting.
The Blues struck out five times with a runner on third and fewer than two outs.
“We just didn’t do our jobs today,” Evans said. “We were never in this ballgame. We had a chance. If we’d have just did half our jobs the first five innings, we’d have been in the ballgame and the outcome could have been different.”
Strikeouts were a problem in general for Emporia against Lansing starter Zac Haller.
The Blues struck out 10 times in the second game alone, which was more than double the number of the team’s hits (four).
“We chased everything,” Loucks said. “We chased stuff that was in the ground. We chased stuff above our head.
“You’re not going to win games when you chase stuff down there and up there.”
Loucks provided most of the offense in Game Two, going 2-for-3 with a pair of triples to right field. He also added two RBI.
Emporia was a different team in Game One, rallying from a 4-3 deficit in the fourth to take a run-rule victory.
The Blues scored three runs in the fourth to regain the lead, helped by singles from Bryne Gonzales and Matt Fry and an RBI double from Nate Flanagin.
Emporia ended the game with a six-run fifth, doing almost all its damage with singles.
Zach Nowell, Gonzales, Fry, Brett Lechien and Loucks all singled before Hall’s RBI hit drove in the game-ending run.
“You could tell we were excited to play that game,” Evans said. “They weren’t going to let go of that game.”
Lechien picked up the win, going four innings while allowing just two walks.
Fry, Gonzales and Flanagin all contributed two-hit games.
Emporia’s next action will come Thursday when it hosts the Zone Tournament.
The Blues have just one other team in their Zone: the Andover Trojans. The two squads will play at 6 and 8 p.m. Thursday, with an if-necessary game scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday if the two teams split the two games Thursday.
The first team to win two games advances to the A State Tournament in Pratt the following week.
Loucks said the Blues were ready to erase the memory of their most recent loss.
“We honestly don’t want to walk into Zone with thoughts of this game on our mind,” Loucks said. “Otherwise, we’re not going to do very well.”
Thursday at Soden’s Grove
Game One
Emporia Blues 12, Lansing 4
Lansing 002 20X X — 4 6 5
Emporia Blues 102 36X X — 12 11 1
W — Brett Lechien. L — Mike Grote.
2B — Lansing: Mike Moore; Emporia: Nate Flanagin. SB — Lansing: Moore, Tyler Parsons, Jason Wahaus, Parker King, Tyler Hoyt; Emporia: Matt Fry, Nick Hrabik, Brett Lechien, Adam Ewy, Jacob Loucks, Zach Nowell, Bryne Gonzalez. Emporia Blues highlights — Matt Fry 2-3, SB, BB, RBI, 3R; Bryne Gonzales 2-3, SB, 2R; Nate Flanagin 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI.
Game Two
Lansing 10, Emporia Blues 4
Lansing 100 401 4 — 10 12 2
Emporia Blues 001 010 2 — 4 4 6
W — Zac Haller. L — Rem Pinick.
2B — Lansing: Mike Moore. 3B — Emporia: Jacob Loucks 2. SB — Lansing: Tyler Parsons; Emporia: Adam Ewy, Henry Ott 2, Ethan Hall 3. Emporia Blues highlights — Jacob Loucks 2-4, 2 3B, 2 RBI, R; Adam Ewy 1-3, BB, SB, R; Nate Flanagin 1-4, RBI; Ethan Hall 0-1, 3 BB, 3 SB.