Graham, Hornets hurting after loss to Central
Stephen Coleman, Special to The Gazette
Saturday, March 21, 2009
WARRENSBURG, MO. — Crane Stadium at Central Missouri continued its reputation as a house of horror for Emporia State on Friday night. The Hornets lost to the Mules 7-3 and might have lost their starting pitcher.
“I don’t know if it’s the stadium or the jerseys,” ESU coach Bob Fornelli said. “Put (Central Missouri) in another jersey and I think we’re a different team. We’ve just got to get over the hump. We’ve got to figure that out and when we do, I think we can compete with anybody.”
Only one player in the UCM lineup was a holdover from the team that handed Emporia State five losses last year, but that didn’t seem to matter when the game was over.
The Hornet bats showed more signs of life, accumulating 10 hits off the Mules’ pitching, but it wasn’t enough.
“We put up 10 hits, granted they were spread,” said outfielder Jeremy Francis, who was 2-for-4. “We’ll come around.”
Fornelli added, “We swung it good early, then we only got three hits in the last five innings. So that’s a little concerning. They’ve got good arms, and they did good things, but we have to be able to make adjustments and do those little things to get us to the place where we need to be.”
Five of the Hornets hits came in the fourth inning, as they scored three runs. With Ben Graham baffling the Mule hitters, it looked like Emporia State’s night.
Then it started to turn south.
“I kind of hurt my arm in the fourth inning,” Graham said. “It was stinging after every pitch. My stuff started to flatten out, and wasn’t as sharp.”
Central Missouri answered ESU’s runs with two, and then followed it up with another two in the fifth.
It wasn’t the night Graham had envisioned, as he had numerous family and friends in the stands. Graham is from Holden, Mo., just a short drive from Warrensburg and had hoped to show better results for his family and for the opposing Mules. Central Missouri had expressed interest in recruiting him, but failed to sign him. His shoulder will be examined further on Monday.
Central Missouri had a slim two-run lead in the eighth when outfielder Kellen Lane dropped a fly ball with two outs, which scored two big insurance runs for the Mules. It was officially the second error of the game for Emporia State, but there were several misplays that could have changed the game’s outcome.
“Again it comes down to where we need to play defense.” Fornelli said. “It changed the game tonight. (If) we make a couple of plays defensively, like we’ve been doing all year long, we might win that game 3-2. It might’ve been over.”
Friday’s game was over, but that didn’t keep any of the Hornets from looking ahead to Saturday’s doubleheader.
“This shouldn’t really affect us at all,” Francis said. “If anything, it’s going to boost us up more.”
Fornelli reiterated that game plan.
“Go out and compete, don’t hang our heads, stick their nose in it and compete,” Fornelli said. “We’re still where we need to be, we just need to go out and on every pitch we need to do the right things.”
Friday at Crane Stadium
Central Missouri 7, Emporia State 3
Emporia State 000 300 000 — 3 10 2
Central Missouri 000 220 12X — 7 13 0
W —Stubenhofer. L — Graham. Sv — Matlock.
E — ESU: Lane, Sharp. DP — UCM 2. LOB — ESU 6, UCM 10. 2B — UCM: Feil, Oropeza. HBP — ESU: Sharp; UCM: Schwartz, Wegener, Oropeza. SH — Wegener, Kent, LaGree. SF — ESU: Dreiling; UCM: Wegener. SB — ESU: Francis; UCM: Schwartz.
admireed (anonymous) says...
Good Saturday. ESU took two from UCM
March 21, 2009 at 10:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
Good weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hornets won Sunday too. Took 3 of 4 from the mules. Please keep heads small.
March 22, 2009 at 3:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )