Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia State's Keith Hernandez (20) hits a two run double into center field in the top of the sixth inning of Saturday's NCAA Division II North Central Region Tournament elimination game against Nebraska Omaha. ESU's season ended with the 17-14 loss.
The 35-game winning streak, the 50 victories, the MIAA regular-season championship all could not get the Emporia State baseball team the one thing it had been playing for all season long.
The Hornets ended their season short of a trip to the College World Series, losing to Nebraska-Omaha, 17-14, on Saturday night in an elimination game of the Central Regional in a way that ESU had leveled on opponent after opponent this season: The Mavericks simply out-slugged the Hornets.
ESU gave up the second-most runs it had allowed this season, as five Hornet pitchers combined to give up 19 hits — including five home runs — and gave up big innings of three, four and seven runs to UNO to put ESU in a hole it could never climb out of despite several rallies.
“We battled, but we just can’t give up those big innings like that,” senior catcher Keith Hernandez said. “That just killed us.
“It hurts. We battled and battled and battled, but I can’t even explain it because it hurts so bad.”
The Hornets, who went on an MIAA-record 35-game winning streak from March 9 to April 20, never seemed to recover after Central Missouri snapped that streak by taking three out of four from ESU on April 25-27. Emporia State closed out the final three weeks of the season with an 8-7 record to finish 50-10 overall.
Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia State second baseman Anthony Dreiling (6) throws out Central Missouri first baseman Balin Bergman (18) during the ESU and UCM's match-up in the NCAA Division II North Central Regional Saturday, May 17.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what happened. We lost our swagger,” Hernandez said. “We never got that swagger back to where we should have been. You’ve got to play your best at the end, and I wish we would have went through this earlier, but that’s baseball.”
After a 5-2 loss to Central Missouri earlier Saturday sent ESU to the losers bracket, it appeared Emporia State might have found some of that swagger early on against Nebraska-Omaha, as Eric Shortell hit a two-out solo home run for his first hit of the Regional — Shortell had been 0-for-11 up to that point — to give the Hornets a 1-0 lead after one half inning.
But the Mavericks came storming back over the next two innings to sink the Hornets into comeback mode.
UNO’s Dustin Koca tagged ESU starter Richard Timbrook for a three-run homer in the bottom of the first before the Mavericks scored four runs in the second — two coming on a two-run blast by Chris Weimer — to go up 7-1.
Emporia State had an answer in the third, though, as the Hornets took advantage of four UNO walks from starter Matt DeGagne to score one run before Anthony Dreiling hit his second grand slam of the season over the left-field wall to pull ESU to within 7-6.
Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia State second baseman Anthony Dreiling (6) throws out University of Nebraska, Omaha's Jeremy Klein (11) at first base as Mat Eikmier (10) reaches second during the ESU and UCM's match-up in the NCAA Division II North Central Regional Saturday, May 17.
But the very next inning, UNO perhaps set the tone for the rest of the game with a seven-run outburst highlighted by four extra-base hits, including yet another home run, this one a two-run shot by Brian Strawn.
ESU used three pitchers in the frame. Timbrook left with no outs after giving up a two-run double to Evan Porter. Aaron Burris came on in relief and immediately gave up Strawn’s homer before allowing four of the next six UNO batters to reach, as Burris left the game with two outs and the score 14-6. Daniel Waggoner allowed two batters to reach but finally got ESU out of the inning when Evan Porter grounded into a fielder’s choice.
“Those big innings hurt. When you give up a seven spot, it’s hard to come back from that,” Waggoner said. “They just fouled off pitches that were on the corners and hit stuff hard that was up the middle. They are a pretty good hitting team, and they hurt us.”
ESU’s pitching was particularly suspect throughout the Regional, as Tyler Applehans gave the Hornets their only quality start in the opener against Concordia-St. Paul on Thursday.
“We’ve got to throw more zeros,” ESU coach Bob Fornelli said. “We threw two zeros in eight innings (against Nebraska-Omaha), and they put up three big-time crooked numbers early — a three, four and a seven. Hold those to a one or a two and it’s a different game.
“You’ve got to pitch better, especially at this time.”
Trailing by eight runs, all ESU could do was chip away at UNO’s lead, but for every Hornet attempt at a rally, the Mavericks had an answer.
ESU scored a single run in the fifth, four more in the sixth and then pulled to within three in the top of the ninth when Hernandez hit a three-run double to make it 17-14, but in between then, UNO added single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames to provide the winning margin.
It all added up to a spectacular season cut short by just the third loss at home for ESU this season.
“Our guys got guts. We battled through some adversity,” Fornelli said. “It was 14-6 at one time, and a lot of teams would have packed it in and called it good. We kept battling and kept fighting and getting guys out of their bullpen. It’s a credit to our guys.
“It’s been a good year. It didn’t end like we wanted it to, but I’ve got a lot of good memories with this baseball team.”
The Hornets will lose 14 seniors off this year’s squad. In four years, this class of seniors went 180-67 and advanced to the Central Regional all four years, including the program’s first appearance in the NCAA Division II College World Series back in 2006.
But no season, Hernandez said, was quite like this one.
“I’m just going to remember all the fun we had — the togetherness we had, all the home games and the 35-game winning streak,” said Hernandez, one of the 14 seniors and the Central Region Player of the Year. “It hurts that this team, as good as we were, just couldn’t get past that hump.
“But, I’m going to look back at it, and I don’t have any regrets. It just hurts right now, though.”
Central Regional
Saturday at Trusler Sports Complex
Nebraska-Omaha 17, Emporia State 14
Emporia State 105 014 003 — 14 12 1
Neb.-Omaha 340 701 11X — 17 19 0
W — DeGagne. L — Timbrook.
E — Wempe. DP — UNO 1. LOB — ESU 5; UNO 8. 2B — ESU: Shortell, Hernandez; UNO: Koca, Porter, Strawn, Klein. HR — ESU: Shortell, Dreiling, Wolfe; UNO: Frew, Weimer 2, Koca, Strawn. HBP — ESU: Crumbliss, Hernandez; UNO: Eikmeier. SB — ESU: Shortell, Dreiling; UNO: Morrison, Frew.
Central Missouri earns Regional championship
Central Missouri took the Central Regional title with an 11-6 victory over Nebraska-Omaha in the championship game Sunday.
UCM put up five runs in the first inning and never trailed after that point.
The 23rd-ranked Mules advance to the College World Series, which starts on Saturday in Sauget, Ill.
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