Hornets get much-needed sweep of SBU
Stephen Coleman, Special to The Gazette
Monday, April 20, 2009
It is getting down to crunch time for the Emporia State softball team’s postseason hopes, and the Hornets helped their cause by taking two from Southwest Baptist on Saturday. They won the first game 6-2 and overcame an early deficit to run-rule the Bearcats 12-4 in the finale.
In the opener, the first two Hornet batters reached via errors and came around to score without the benefit of a hit. Catcher Aubree Brattin then followed with her third home run of the season to give Emporia State a 3-0 lead. The Hornets looked to be in trouble in the second, as SBU scored a run, but SBU catcher Stephanie Luciani appeared to twist her ankle after rounding second and was tagged out while trying to get back to the base to end the inning. After that, Megan Dennis made sure that was as close as SBU would get.
“They were very aggressive,” Dennis said. “When you get the ball up, you’re going to get hit. I finally got the ball lower and my changeup was working so things turned around.”
After the Bearcats’ second-inning charge, they didn’t have more than one baserunner in any inning until the seventh when they turned a bases loaded rally into one final run. Dennis (14-6) finished up with her 18th complete game of the season, allowing nine hits and striking out four Bearcats.
Hornet shortstop Abby Hughes thought that Dennis’ strike-throwing ability helped out the team.
“Megan did a good job in the first game of getting ahead,” Hughes said. “That’s a big thing, especially for a defense. Your defense feels a lot better off when you’re not putting people on base by walks and things like that.”
Emporia State coach Kristi Bredbenner, while pleased with the wins, had a tougher view of her pitchers’ performance.
“I think that obviously Southwest Baptist hit the ball pretty well,” Bredbenner said. “In the first game, Megan got the ball up a little bit, but made some adjustments late which helped her out quite a bit.”
ESU added to its lead in the fifth, scoring two runs on a double by Hughes and a single by Jennifer Dace. Hughes had a big day at the plate, with four hits and three runs over the two games.
“Today I was a little shaky,” Hughes said. “It was my mental game more than anything. I just really need to slow down and focus on the ball. That was my plan today and it pulled out at the end.”
The Hornets added one more unearned run in th fifth, with Brattin reaching on an error, stealing second, and scoring on a wild pitch. Brattin had a double and a home run, scoring three runs over the two games.
“She does it all for us,” Bredbenner said. “She does a great job behind the plate. When she gets a hold of it, she hits the ball really well. She had some good at-bats at key times and that’s what we need from her.”
Brattin was glad that she was able to contribute to the victories.
“I really didn’t have a plan coming up against these pitchers,” Brattin said. “We’ve been working for (UCM) all week. Today I just had to really come out and make the adjustment and see what they had.”
Game Two started much more roughly for the Hornets, with ESU allowing three unearned runs in the first as Angela Mahan had two errors. The Hornet bats picked her up, getting two runs back immediately with RBI hits from Miranda Campbell and Jennifer Dace getting ESU back within one. After that, Jennifer Heerey (17-6) settled down on the mound, and Bredbenner watched the offense take over.
“I thought the first couple of innings we struggled a little bit,” she said. “We left eight runners on base in the first four innings. Obviously when you’re letting go of opportunities like that, those can catch up with you. They finally started having better at-bats in putting the balls in play and making things happen. When you score 12 runs you’ve got to be pretty happy with your offense and I thought they did a much better job in the second game than in the first.”
Three runs in the second, one in the third, a five-run fifth, and a run-scoring bunt from Miranda Campbell plated the run-ruling tally. The Hornets now look forward to Missouri Western on Tuesday, trying to take every precious conference game they can.
“From here on out every win is very important,” Brattin said. “We can’t afford another loss in this conference.”
Bredbenner agreed, but also didn’t want the team to get ahead of themselves.
“We’re just taking it one win at a time and hopefully developing a little bit of momentum now,” she said. “We’ve won three in a row going into a big series with Missouri Western.”
Saturday at Trusler
Game One
Emporia State 6, SW Baptist 2
SW Baptist 010 000 1 — 2 9 3
Emporia State 300 210 X — 6 7 0
WP — Dennis. LP — Wood.
E — SBU: Baderdeen, Gomez, Nalbandian. DP — ESU 1. LOB — SBU 6, ESU 5. 2B — SBU: Mortimer; ESU: Mahan, Hughes. HR — ESU: Brattin. HBP — SBU: Mortimer, Luciani. SH — ESU: Mahan. SB — ESU: Mahan, Hughes, Brattin. CS — SBU: Proctor.
Game Two
Emporia State 12, SW Baptist 4 (6 innings)
SW Baptist 300 010 — 4 6 4
Emporia State 231 051 — 12 11 2
WP — Heerey. LP — Rose.
E — SBU: Nalbandian 2, Rodriguez, Rose; ESU: Mahan 2. LOB — SBU 5, ESU 10. 2B — SBU: Mortimer, Dace, Brattin, Smith. SH — SBU: Nalbandian; ESU: Mahan, Hughes, Campbell, Smith. SB — ESU: Mahan 3, Hughes, Campbell 2, Dace, Potter, Ketter.