Hornets end bad trip at Southern with loss
Stephen Coleman, Special to The Gazette
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Emporia State Hornets left for Joplin, Mo., on Friday for a four-game set with conference rival Missouri Southern. After losing three of those four over the weekend, it might seem that they never actually made it there.
ESU split a doubleheader on Saturday, rallying to win the first game 5-2, while handing the Lions a monster nine-run sixth in a 12-11 loss. Sunday’s game showed signs they had yet to fully recover as they fell 11-7.
“It hurts,” said Tyler Appelhans, ESU’s starting pitcher for its Saturday victory. “It’s always going to be in the back of your head, that’s adversity you’ve got to get over it.”
Ben Graham (5-3) started the finale for the Hornets, but failed to get out of the fourth inning, allowing seven runs on nine hits.
“I left several pitches up and with the wind blowing like it was, either they were hitting them hard out of the park or they were barely hitting it and they dropped in,” Graham said.
Graham had only surrendered two homers this season before Sunday’s outing.
ESU coach Bob Fornelli said that Graham’s performance wasn’t up to par, but also tipped his cap to Southern.
“He was working behind in counts,” Fornelli said. “He left some balls up that left the yard.
“... (Missouri Southern) is hot. They had a big inning yesterday and were fired up today. They have a big second inning and all of a sudden they think they’re pretty good and did a great job of beating us all weekend.”
Missouri Southern started its rout with a pair of two-run homers in the second.
Southern added a run-scoring ground ball in the third, and another two-run shot in the fourth ended Graham’s day.
The Lions added four more, and when it looked to be a blowout, the Hornets finally got a spark of life.
After stranding two runners in the fifth, Emporia State scored twice in the sixth. Andy Cotton scored on a single by Chris Dobler, and Mike Sharp also added an RBI. It wasn’t much, but it kept the run-rule from taking effect. That, coupled with Dominic King’s three shutout innings late in the game, let Emporia State have new life.
The comeback effort went into full tilt in the ninth inning when six of the first seven Hornets reached base, with Rudy Weiser and Chris Dobler driving in runs before Kenny Burkhead doubled over the right fielder with the bases loaded to plate three more. That closed the deficit to four runs, and that is where it stayed.
“We battled back,” Burkhead said. “We still put up seven runs in the last four innings of the game. There’s no one to blame or point fingers at. This is a team game, it’s a team loss. It just could’ve been better all around.”
Fornelli downplayed the weekend while looking ahead.
“I think we lost momentum,” he said. “We didn’t get the chance to play one weekend and then (played) one nine-inning game and we just lost a little momentum, lost a little focus and that’s what we’ll do ... this week, try and gain that back ... next weekend against Baptist. Every goal we have set for us is still right in front of us. We just have to go take care of business. Really we’ve had two bad weekends the whole year. You play 48 games and only have two bad weekends, you’ve still got a good chance at being successful.”
The players were ready to return home too.
“It’ll be nice to go back to our field, get on that turf and do everything we normally do,” outfielder Conner Crumbliss said.
“Flush this game,” Burkhead said. “We’ve got to come out and beat Southwest Baptist this weekend and straighten things out.”
With the remaining games being precious few, each victory becomes more important as the Hornets are hoping to host the regional tournament in mid-May.
“(This weekend) was a big wake-up call,” Graham said. “We can’t just show up, put on our jerseys and expect to win.”
Emporia State next will play Southwest Baptist on Friday at Trusler with the double-header beginning at 4 p.m.
Sunday at Missouri Southern
Missouri Southern 11, Emporia State 7
Emporia State 000 002 005 — 7 14 2
Missouri Southern 041 330 00X — 11 18 1
WP — Beal. LP — Graham.
E — ESU: White, Graham; MSSU: Rawlins. DP — ESU 1, MSSU 2. LOB — ESU 7, MSSU 10. 2B — ESU: Burkhead, Sharp, Theadman, Cotton; MSSU: Taylor, Ezell, Hernandez, Hoke. HR — MSSU: Rawlins, Taylor, Hart. HBP — ESU: Burkhead, Taylor. SB — ESU: White; MSSU: Caldwell. CS — ESU: Francis, Williamson; MSSU: Caldwell.