After Megan Dennis threw a complete-game shutout in a 3-0 win, the Missouri Western hitters adjusted, the Hornet pitchers didn’t and the Griffons got a 7-6 win to keep the Hornets in fourth place in the MIAA.
A doubleheader sweep would have put Emporia State (31-12, 11-5 MIAA) in second place ahead of Missouri Western (38-7, 12-4). Instead, the Hornets felt as if they wasted an opportunity to justify a move up from 10th in the Regional rankings.
“We need a sense of urgency,” ESU coach Kristi Bredbenner said. “... We’ve got a team capable of doing really well, but we’ve got to play consistent softball and be consistently ready at all times.”
Game One had played out perfectly to set up a Hornet sweep. Dennis (15-7) stranded seven Griffon baserunners. She gave up nine hits, but when she needed an out, she threw the right pitch.
“We scattered some hits, but it didn’t really matter, because we were working around the good hitters,” Dennis said.
The Griffons didn’t work around the Hornets’ top hitters.
In the third inning, with the game scoreless and with two outs, Abby Hughes hit a two-run homer to left-center field.
Before Hughes could turn her attention back to the game in the dugout, Miranda Campbell had landed a ball a few feet away from her home run for back-to-back homers to give ESU a 3-0 lead.
The Hornets’ two smallest players had come up with the biggest hits of the day. Hughes put her arm around Campbell as they walked back to the dugout and told her, “Small girls rule.”
“That just proves that you don’t have to be big and strong to hit home runs,” Campbell said.
The mood of the Hornets shifted during the middle portion of Game Two.
Dennis had thrown her shutout by working the outside corner, and Missouri Western adjusted by crowding the plate in Game Two.
The Griffons’ strategy started to work in the fourth inning. After ESU freshman Jennifer Heerey forced the leadoff hitter to pop out, Heerey (17-5) hit Ashley Hudson with an inside pitch and then gave up three straight hits.
With a runner at second, Dennis came in to relieve Heerey, but she could not stop the Griffons either.
Tyann Williamson led off against Dennis with a double to give Missouri Western a 5-1 lead.
“When it was my time to come in, I really wasn’t prepared,” Dennis said. “I didn’t have time to warm up, and that’s my fault. I just have to be ready all the time.”
In the fifth inning, Dennis settled back in and retired three straight batters after giving up a leadoff single. The Hornets cut into the lead with a Hughes solo homer in the fourth, and Campbell wrapped a two-run homer around the right field foul pole to make it 5-4.
Dennis, who threw 10 2/3 innings between the two games, started to tire in the sixth, and the Griffons added two more runs.
“I get frustrated when I don’t get ahead of batters,” Dennis said. “When my legs start to go out, I can feel it because I have a harder time catching back up with myself, rather than getting ahead of every batter.”
The Griffons’ two insurance runs ended up paying off.
Jenna Potter hit a two-out double in the seventh to pull the Hornets within a run with the tying run at second base. Smith could not drive in Potter and grounded out to second to end the game.
The Hornets showed the sense of urgency in the final inning that Bredbenner had wanted to see, but it ended up being too late.
“I thought this whole game today, it just seemed like we were relaxed and not necessarily as fired up and ready to go,” Bredbenner said. “In the last four years that I’ve been here, everyone’s fired up for game day. They’re cheering and going crazy in the dugout. They look like they’re ready to go at any second.
“I think right now this team needs to find a little bit of motivation and go out there and take it to the team every single inning and play like they did in that seventh inning every single inning.”
The new regional rankings will be released today, and with a split against first-place Central Missouri last Friday, the Hornets should move up. But with only eight teams making the regional, the Hornets are on the bubble, which might have changed with a sweep against the Griffons.
“I just think we have to go out here and play every game like it’s our last, because right now we’re just kind of on the wildcard slot, because we have to win from here on out,” Campbell said. “I think our best bet to get to regionals is to win the conference tournament. We’ve got to go out here and sweep Fort Hays and sweep Washburn (today).”
Monday at Turnbull Field
Game One
Emporia State 3, Missouri Western 0
Mo. Western 000 000 0 — 0 9 0
Emporia State 003 000 X — 3 6 0
DP — ESU 1. LOB — MW 7, ESU 4. 2B — MW: Douglas; ESU: Peters. HR — ESU: Hughes, Campbell. SH — ESU: Hughes, Peters, Ketter. SB — ESU: Campbell.
Game Two
Missouri Western 7, Emporia State 6
Mo. Western 001 402 0 — 7 12 0
Emporia State 001 120 2 — 6 9 0
DP — MW 1, ESU 1. LOB — MW 8, ESU 7. 2B — MW: Diehl, Franks; ESU: Williamson, Smith, Potter. 3B — MW: Buchanan. HR — ESU: Campbell, Smith. HBP — MW: Hudson. SH — MW: Pivovar; ESU: Williamson, Hughes.