The team photo with the trophy was quick. There weren’t many smiles. There wasn’t much energy left to smile.
Perhaps looking back, the Emporia AAAs will enjoy their accomplishment of a second-place finish at the Mike’s Classic at Soden’s Grove.
At 1:30 a.m. this morning, though, it was a little difficult.
“Maybe this will all come together in the morning and we’ll all figure out exactly what happened,” Emporia AAAs coach Aaron Lechien said. “We’re kind of just up in the clouds right now.”
In actuality, Emporia should have been on a high after taking two upset wins on Sunday to advance to the championship game in its home tournament.
Because all of Saturday’s games were rained out, though, the final game was pushed back all the way to 11 p.m. on Sunday.
It ended at 1:24 this morning, as Emporia fell, 11-0, to Lawrence in the title game.
Earlier in the day, Emporia handed Ottawa just its third loss of the season, taking a 5-4 victory on a walkoff single by Taylor Clark.
The AAAs followed that performance with a 5-2 win over the Kansas Senators to advance to the championship game of the eight-team tournament.
Once Emporia got there, it didn’t seem to have much left.
Lawrence pitcher Caleb Gress overwhelmed the AAA batters, striking out 17 in the six-inning game.
Only one Emporia player was retired with a ball put in play — Harrison Stone grounded out to second in the fifth inning.
“(Gress) was putting the fastball by us,” Lechien said. “I don’t really know what adjustments we could have made. If I could have thought of them, I definitely would have tried something. I’m not really sure what we could have done differently.”
Emporia mustered just one hit, a single from James Sparks in the second.
Gress said it was the type of game he might tell his grandkids about some day.
“It’ll be something to look back upon,” Gress said. “It probably won’t happen again. It’ll definitely be something that’ll be talked about in the future.
Lawrence, meanwhile, finally broke through against reliever Nick Riggs in the fourth.
After a leadoff walk, Travis Sanders plugged the gap with a run-scoring triple that rolled to the 350-foot sign in right.
Drew Hulse contributed a one-out sacrifice fly to make it 2-0, and leadoff hitter Matt Abel added another run after shooting a ball to right-center.
Sparks dived but couldn’t make the catch, and center fielder Cameron Smith had to leap over Sparks to get to the ball.
Second baseman Zach Gifford received the cutoff throw, but as he started to run in, Abel rounded third without hesitation and headed for home.
Gifford’s throw was late and high, as Abel slid in safely with an inside-the-park home run.
Lawrence tacked on four runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to enforce the run-rule.
At the end, both teams looked ready to return home. Some of Emporia’s players had been at Soden’s Grove at 5 a.m. Sunday morning to help take off the tarp.
“It was just a long day, really tiring,” Sparks said. “A bunch of the guys were tired, running on not very much sleep.
“I guess we just fought through it those first two games and kind of lost it here in the last one.”
To get the tournament in, all Sunday’s games before the championship were limited to either five innings or a 90-minute time limit.
Emporia’s best — and most dramatic — win came in the morning against Ottawa.
After trailing 4-1, Emporia responded with three runs in the bottom of the third to tie it. The AAAs took advantage of two Ottawa errors and scored all three runs without a hit.
Clark came through for his team in the bottom of the fourth.
Gifford contributed a one-out single, and Jared Krause reached on an error.
Clark followed with an RBI single to score Gifford and end the game because of the time limit.
Krause helped Emporia advance to the championship against the Kansas Senators, allowing just two runs in his complete-game effort.
The AAAs pulled away with a three-run fifth, as Dylan Smith capped the scoring with an RBI double that put Emporia ahead, 5-1.
Krause allowed a run in the bottom of the fifth but got Cameron Hall to fly out to center with the bases loaded to end the game.
Clark led Emporia’s bats, going 2-for-2 with two runs scored.
Even after Emporia’s final loss, Lechien wasn’t about to overlook the best day of his team’s season.
“That’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Lechien said of the runner-up finish. “I’m sure coming into this tournament, most of the teams we were playing against kind of overlooked us a little bit. We kind of came up and bit them.”
Mike’s Classic
Sunday at Soden’s Grove
Championship Game
Lawrence 11, Emporia AAAs 0
Lawrence 000 344 X — 11 10 2
Emporia AAAs 000 000 X — 0 1 3
W — Caleb Gress. L — Nick Riggs.
2B — Lawrence: Clint Pinnick. 3B — Lawrence: Travis Sanders. HR — Lawrence: Matt Abel. SB — Lawrence: Abel 2, Aaron Rea, Joe Kornbrust. Emporia AAA highlights — Taylor Clark 2 1/3 IP, H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2K; James Sparks 1-2, BB, 1B; Jared Krause 0-2, BB.
Pool Play
Emporia 5, Ottawa 4
Ottawa 103 0X — 4 7 3
Emporia AAAs 103 1X — 5 3 2
2B — Ottawa: Blake Firestone. SB — Emporia: Jared Krause. Emporia AAA highlights — Taylor Clark 1-2, GW 1B, BB, RBI, R; Zach Gifford 2-3, 2R; Jared Krause 0-1, 2 HBP, SB, R.
Emporia 5, Kansas Senators 2
Emporia 200 03 — 5 6 1
KS Senators 100 01 — 2 5 3
W — Jared Krause. L — Brandon Wilkerson.
2B — Emporia: Taylor Clark, Dylan Smith; KS Senators: Brett Ash, Bobby Ross. SB — Emporia: Clark; KS Senators: Brandon Wilkerson. Emporia AAA highlights — Taylor Clark 2-2, 2B, BB, SB, 2R; James Sparks 1-3, 2 RBI; Jared Krause 1-3, 2R.