Sometimes, the numbers tell the story.
Forty-three runs, 21 errors, 22 walks and three balks — including two in one inning — tell it the best: there was some ugly baseball going on Tuesday night at Soden’s Grove. The most important number at the end of five-and-a-half hours of baseball, though, was two — two wins and a doubleheader sweep for Emporia High.
The Spartans got help from eight Topeka High errors in Game One and scored a 15-5 run-rule win in six innings. In the second game, it was the Spartan defense piling up the miscues, committing eight errors of their own and heading to extra innings before Corey Bacon’s line-drive RBI hit in the eighth gave EHS a wild 12-11 win.
Emporia is a healthy 6-2 on the year, and whether it comes via beautiful baseball or a less attractive version of the game, they’re happy to be winning.
“You look at the box score, they have (14) hits, we have eight errors — honestly, do we deserve to win? Maybe not,” EHS coach Mike Strickland said. “But our team found a way, put runs on the board, and we found a way to score.”
Seeing as the Spartans fought themselves as much as they did the Trojans in Game Two, that win had to be especially sweet. Emporia surged ahead 8-6 in the third inning by scoring four runs on just one hit, thanks to five Topeka High walks. But the Spartans committed four errors the following inning, including a routine popup that dropped in behind shortstop Brian Keisler with a runner on third and two outs to make it 10-8 Trojans.
Jacob Loucks led off the bottom of the sixth by getting plunked behind his left shoulder, then advanced to second on a passed ball. Derek Nielsen then singled him home to make it 10-9, and Keisler followed by fisting off a pitch on his hands and dropping a looper into right field, scoring Nielsen easily with the tying run. On the first pitch to the next batter, Matt Fry, Keisler took off for second, and John Carlson’s throw got into center field. That allowed Bacon to score to make it 11-10 in favor of EHS.
Topeka High answered in the top of the seventh when Mason Gomez reached second on third baseman Loucks’ throwing error, advanced to third on a balk and scored on Ben Carlson’s single to right over a drawn-in infield.
But in the bottom of the eighth, the Spartans put together a two-out rally to get the win. Nielsen drew a walk — the ninth of the game issued by Topeka High — and stole second with Bacon at the plate. Bacon then lined a shot that sent center fielder Olien Alexander back. As the ball came down, it looked as if Alexander had a bead on it — but then it fell in behind him, and the Spartans had their sweep.
“It felt great, it really did,” Bacon said. “I mean, I wish we could have taken care of business a lot sooner, but finding ways to win is always great.”
The Spartan defense was quite a bit better earlier in the day, as EHS made just one error in Game One, while the Trojans couldn’t stop making them. After Alexander’s three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth tied the game at 5, Emporia scored 10 unanswered runs, including seven in the fifth. The game ended after the Spartans plated two runs in their half of the sixth on RBI singles by Zach Gifford and Nielsen.
Hits by Bacon and Brett Lechien got the Spartans started in their half of the fifth, and EHS got some help from Topeka’s defense. Brian Keisler’s sac bunt attempt turned into a bunt single when the second baseman didn’t cover first, and Fry and Gifford reached on errors. Topeka High pitchers committed two balks to bring home runs, and Henry Rodriguez’s liner to center was badly misplayed by Alexander and turned into an RBI triple. The Trojans threw in another error by left fielder Ben Carlson on an RBI single by Bacon, and the Spartans were up 13-5.
Bacon’s hit to win Game Two was an appropriate finish to a twin bill in which the Spartans got plenty of production from the bottom of their order. Bacon, Lechien and Keisler, batting in the seven- through nine-holes, each had two hits in Game One. In the second game, Keisler added three singles, Lechien reached on an HBP and a walk, and Bacon had three straight walks before his game-winner.
“The bottom of the order was really impressive,” Strickland said. “Up and down the order, we don’t have a lot of power guys. We have a lot of contact guys, and that’s the point. In the bottom half, they’re down there for that reason: to get on base for us and to do that stuff.”
Emporia will host Shawnee Heights in a doubleheader Friday at Soden’s Grove.
“We would’ve liked to get another win from Junction City (two weeks ago),” Lechien said. “But we’re happy with 6-2.”
Game One
Topeka High 110 300 — 5 6 8
Emporia 005 172 — 15 12 1
WP — Loucks. LP — Carpenter.
2B — THS: Wang; EHS: Loucks. 3B — EHS: Rodriguez. HR — THS: Alexander.
Game Two
Topeka High 132 400 10 — 11 14 4
Emporia 224 003 01 — 12 9 8
WP — Fry. LP — Anderson.
2B — THS: Alexander, Wang, Carlson; EHS: Nielsen.