When the Emporia State Hornets look back on their 2009 baseball season, they’ll be proud of their MIAA regular season championship.
But in the short term, the Hornets cannot be too proud of how they won it.
After losing Game One on Friday 4-1 to Southwest Baptist, Emporia State bounced back with a 4-1 win in Game Two to clinch the conference title. Considering the opponent, the MIAA’s last-place team, neither win was one coach Bob Fornelli’s going to want to story in the memory bank.
“It’s a cool deal I guess, but if we play like we’re playing right now — last weekend, this weekend — we don’t deserve it,” Fornelli said.
The Hornets certainly have not looked like the team that needed only two wins in their final eight games to win the conference title. Their struggles started last weekend at Missouri Southern, where they lost a series in the conference for the first time all season by dropping three of four.
The main problem at Southern was the pitching. The offense put up 27 runs in the series, but the pitchers allowed 34 runs in the three losses.
Tyler Applehans continued that trend in Game One, giving up three runs and six hits in the first two innings to put ESU in a 3-0 hole. Applehans (7-2) worked behind in counts and saw his pitch count balloon to 50 by the end of the second inning. Applehans settled in after that and found a way to get outs; however, the ESU offense was in a slumber.
The Hornets managed just one run on seven hits, going scoreless until Conner Crumbliss drove in Caleb Williamson in the fifth inning. The poor production came against SBU starter Ray Kelly (3-9), who came into the game with an 8.00 ERA, and threw a complete game against the MIAA’s top-scoring team.
“That first one shouldn’t have happened,” Williamson said. “That should never happen. It doesn’t even matter who it is. We just played bad. We didn’t show up, didn’t compete. Nothing against those guys, congratulations to them, but we beat ourselves.”
The ESU offense finally found a way to score some runs early on in Game Two with some help from Baptist. Conner Crumbliss led off the first with a walk and then scored on a throwing error by SBU pitcher Eric Wallace that allowed Jeremy Francis to get on base and advance to third.
Williamson, who moved up to the cleanup spot in Game Two, drove in Francis with a bloop single to right field to give the Hornets a 2-0 lead.
“You put up one run against the last place team in the conference the game before, you’re supposed to be the first place team, you better come out and do something,” Williamson said. “We scored the first two innings and then kind of sat on it there until the seventh or eighth.”
Kevin Wempe gave the Hornets a 3-0 lead in the second with a solo home run. After Wempe’s homer, the Hornets did not get another hit until Williamson led off the sixth with a single.
“I felt like we’ve got some guys feeling for some things instead of trying to compete real hard at the plate,” Wempe said. “I don’t know if there was a carryover or not, definitely pretty uninspired effort today.”
The 3-0 lead was enough for Colby Killian, who bounced back from a rough start at Southern. Killian (5-0) took advantage of a wide strike zone and worked ahead most of the game. He gave up only one run on three hits, and the only time he was in trouble was the third inning when he gave up two walks and a single to load the bases. Killian forced Kyle Wise to ground out to second to end the inning unharmed.
“I got a lot of people out on first pitches, throwing strikes and getting ground balls. I took advantage,” Killian said. “He did have a wide zone there, especially towards the end it seemed like it expanded a little bit.”
With the conference title wrapped up, Emporia State (39-10, 26-7 MIAA) can turn its attention today to getting back some momentum heading into the conference tournament.
“We did everything at the first of the year we needed to do to be successful, but right now this isn’t a very good baseball team,” Fornelli said. “We’re going to have to figure it out how much it means to be a Hornet, how much pride it takes, how much effort it takes day in and day out, and right now we don’t have that.”
Today’s doubleheader against Southwest Baptist (9-38, 7-28) starts at noon at Trusler.
Friday at Trusler
Game One
Southwest Baptist 4, Emporia State 1
Southwest Baptist 120 000 1 — 4 10 0
Emporia State 000 010 0 — 1 7 0
WP — Kelly. LP — Applehans.
DP — SBU 1, ESU 1. LOB — SBU 8, ESU 6. 2B — SBU: Wise, Cobb; ESU: Crumbliss, Dreiling. HBP — ESU: Williamson. SH — SBU: Roller, Barnhart, Tormanen. SF — SBU: Roller. SB — ESU: Crumbliss.
Game Two
Emporia State 4, Southwest Baptist 1
Southwest Baptist 000 010 000 — 1 3 1
Emporia State 210 000 10X — 4 5 1
WP — Killian. LP — Wallace. Sv — Soto.
E — SBU: Wallace; ESU: Cotton. DP — ESU 2. LOB — SBU 5, ESU 7. HR — ESU: Wempe. HBP — ESU: Cotton. SH — ESU: Francis. SB — ESU: Crumbliss. CS — SBU: Barnhart; ESU: Williamson.