A triple play, a seven-run rally, a game-ending running catch in the gap that took away a hit.
Lately, that's about how things would go against the Emporia Gold. But on Thursday night at Soden's Grove, Emporia was finally on the good side of baseball fortune.
The Gold swept a doubleheader for the first time this season, beating Andover 12-6 and 11-10, and putting behind them a brutal six-day stretch in which they dropped nine of 11.
Of course, they didn’t make it easy on themselves.
In Game Two, they trailed 9-2 and rallied to take a two-run lead into the seventh inning.
Ottawa loaded the bases with one out, putting the tying run at second and the go-ahead run at first. Nick Hrabik struck out Jack Miller, and then walked Jared Germann with two outs, putting the tying run at third base.
Kyle Shook about took the air out of Soden’s Grove when he hit one of the deepest drives for the Trojans all night into the left-center gap.
Emporia center fielder Daniel Finch got a good jump on the ball and ran it down, stranding the Trojans’ tying run at third base to end the game.
“I was jumping around out there,” Finch said. “I was like, ‘we’ve got to win this. We’ve got to win. We’ve got to hold on.’ I was hoping for a ball to get hit out there for me so I could get it.
“I thought it was in the gap, ran over to it, and it felt great.”
The feeling was more one of relief for Hrabik.
“That last hit I was kind of freaked out it was in the gap,” Hrabik said. “But my team put up the defense and Finch caught it, so it worked out good.”
The Gold deserved a break from the baseball Gods after having to play 11 games in six days. It turned out a day off before Thursday’s doubleheader was just what the team needed.
The Gold even breezed through a game in the opener. Emporia scored in every inning, including back-to-back four-run innings in the third and fourth.
Brett McEvoy started and gave up just two runs in four innings. He opened the game by walking and hitting the first two batters, but the Gold defense bailed him out with a triple play. Germann hit a one-hopper to Chase Speer, Speer stepped on third, threw to Matt Weatherred at second, who turned and threw to Brady Marstall at first.
Speer, Alex Benjamin and McEvoy all had two hits apiece, and the Gold capitalized on six Andover errors, jumping out to a 10-2 lead and cruising to an easy win.
The second game wasn’t so easy.
Hrabik, who returned from an ankle injury to pitch Game Two, struggled to find the strike zone in the first inning. The Trojans jumped out to a 5-0 lead and eventually pulled out to a 9-2 lead in the fourth inning.
“That last game they were a little bit mad at the way they came out,” Emporia coach Alex Reyes said. “I don’t know if it was a lack of preparation. I don’t know if they thought they were going to cruise in and get the second game as easy as the first game, but they picked it up. Obviously they did not want to lose.”
Trailing 9-2 going into the bottom of the fourth inning, Finch led off with a single. He came around to score on Alex Benjamin’s triple.
Benjamin was nearly stranded at third, but Andover center fielder Caleb Perkins dropped Jackson Perez’s fly ball with two outs, allowing Benjamin to score.
Emporia tied the game at 9 in the fifth, scoring five runs. Marstall and McEvoy led off with back-to-back singles.
Marstall scored when Garin Burgess reached on an error. Finch brought around McEvoy and Burgess with his third single of the doubleheader.
Finch scored on Weatherred’s sacrifice fly, and an errant throw by Andover right fielder Matt Seagraves allowed Tanner Page to score to tie the game.
“We were pretty dead in the earlier innings when we were getting stomped, but our coaches told us to get up, ‘we can do this, we can come back,’” Finch said. “And we got up, cheering on our teammates and the energy just changed.”
With the game tied, Speer led off the sixth inning with a single. McEvoy also singled with one and Burgess walked to load the bases.
Finch hit a ground ball that allowed Andover to get the force out at second, but scored Speer for the go-ahead run. Page and Benjamin then worked back-to-back two-out walks, driving in a second run to give Hrabik a two-run cushion to work with.
Hrabik settled after his wild first. He switched from the windup to the stretch and started to get in a groove in the middle innings. He struck out the side in the fifth and gave the Gold a chance to take the lead by pitching a scoreless sixth.
“He struggled a little early,” Reyes said. “This is his third time pitching all season. You don’t expect him to cruise along strike after strike. I’m just proud that he found a way and got it done.”
The Gold, 11-20, get a much-needed break over the weekend and are off until next week’s Zone tournament, going in with a rare winning streak.
“I think we’re going to feed off of this in our later games and it’s really going to help us out,” Finch said. “I think we’ve got some new-found confidence and it’s big.”