The Emporia High baseball team opened its season with a pair of losses to Washburn Rural on Friday.
Rural won the first game in comeback fashion, 7-3, before taking Game Two, 9-2.
Emporia actually took the lead in the second inning of Game One when Derek Nielsen drove in Dominic Rodriguez with a double that made it 1-0.
Josh McGuire and Michael Knight each scored single runs in the third inning to help Emporia stake a 3-0 lead, but it would not last.
Rural closed the gap to 3-2 with a two-run bottom of the fourth thanks in part to a couple of EHS errors. Then in the sixth, with Emporia High starter Jacob Loucks’ pitch count growing, EHS coach Mike Strickland put Knight on the mound in relief.
“I’m not going to push anything the first game out,” Strickland said.
Rural then struck for five runs in the sixth, highlighted by a three-run home run by Blaine Matthews, and EHS could not make a rally of its own despite getting runners on base in the seventh inning.
“We just didn’t keep the pressure on them in the fifth and sixth innings like we should have,” Strickland said.
In Game Two, the Junior Blues got out to a 7-1 lead after three innings, and the Spartans never threatened after that. Not helping Emporia’s cause were four errors.
“We just lacked concentration,” Strickland said. “Defensively, we didn’t play as well as I would have liked us to. We should have played better defense.”
Emporia (0-2) will be back in action with a home doubleheader next Friday against Topeka West.
Washburn Rural 7, Emporia 3
Game One
Emporia 012 000 0 — 3 4 3
Washburn Rural 000 205 X — 7 10 2
W — Seidel. L — Loucks.
2B — Emporia: Neilsen. HR — WR: Matthews. LOB — Emporia 5, WR 6. HBP — Emporia: Gifford, Knight; WR: Schrey.
Washburn Rural 9, Emporia 2
Game Two
Emporia 001 010 0 — 2 5 4
Washbrun Rural 034 200 X — 9 8 1
W — McAlister. L — Lechien.
2B — WR: Carver, Shinn. LOB — Emporia 6, WR 11. HBP — WR: Rockefeller, Swope.