When Emporia State takes the field today against Newman in the home opener, Hornet fans should expect a new look from Bob Fornelli’s baseball team.
Gone are the long-ball hitters like Keith Hernandez; this year’s Hornets are more small ball, an approach that could lead to similar success.
“It’s totally different,” Fornelli said. “We scored 54 runs this weekend and didn’t hit a home run; last year we’d hit 15 home runs and maybe scored 60, but it was fun to watch.”
Emporia State (7-2) has nine home runs in nine games, but they’ve still been lighting up the scoreboard, scoring in double digits in seven games.
Newcomer Kenny Burkhead, a junior first baseman, has led the way, hitting a team-best .564 with eight doubles, two home runs and 17 RBIs from the third spot in the lineup. Center fielder Conner Crumbliss has hit leadoff and is hitting .500 with eight doubles, a triple, 12 RBIs and a team-best 18 runs scored.
Crumbliss represents the identity of the offense. The Hornets want to get on base and find a way to score every inning.
“We’re a role team,” Fornelli said. “We can’t just rely on Burkhead and Crumbliss to do all those things. Silently, Zach Theadman, even though his average isn’t up, he’s doing things that are making us better, getting the bunts down and moving runners and scoring runs for us.”
Coming into the season, Fornelli believed that the strength in this year’s team would be its pitching. After allowing 50 runs in their first five games, the ESU pitchers settled in this weekend and showed their potential.
The Hornets should rely heavily on their top four starters: Tyler Applehans, Ryan Anthony, Ben Graham and Colby Killian. They combined to pitch 25 innings and yielded only five runs in the four-game sweep this weekend at Colorado Mines.
“That’s the one thing we had to rely on we thought was our pitching, especially our top four guys,” Fornelli said. “They had some rough outings, and I think the last week we got back here and they were able to throw some good bullpens inside and do some good things, and I think it showed this week with their performances.”
The ESU pitchers’ struggles early had a lot to do with walking too many hitters. They’ve also had the disadvantage of having only two true practices so far.
“I’m just getting comfortable outside on the mound,” Graham said. “We’ve been inside for a long time just throwing bullpens and it’s a little different throwing against actual hitters. I just tried to throw strikes and not walk anybody and compete aggressively in the zone and I think I did a good job of that.”
Graham, who is expected to be the ace of the staff, has a 3.94 ERA in a team-high 16 innings. He has 14 strikeouts and only one walk. The other three starters have combined to walk 23 batters.
In today’s game, Fornelli will test his bullpen, most likely resting his starters and saving them for the weekend series against Northwest Missouri.
“We need to figure out a little more about our bullpen, who we can rely on,” Fornelli said.
After starting 1-2, the Hornets have won five straight. And although the makeup of this year’s team is different, Fornelli is starting to mold a team that should be successful.
“I think we’ve started to become a family in the last couple weeks,” Fornelli said. “We went through some growing pains the last couple weeks. I think you can see we’ve gotten a lot better.”