The two teams that showed up this weekend for Emporia State hardly resembled each other.
On Friday, the sourpuss Hornets couldn’t hit a pitcher with an 8.00 ERA, split a doubleheader against last-place Southwest Baptist and spent the postgame celebrating their MIAA regular season title-clinching win by picking up sunflower seeds.
Bob Fornelli’s postgame punishment must have flipped a switch.
On Saturday, Emporia State actually played and looked the part of conference champions. The Hornets won 5-0 and 13-3 and even looked as if they had fun doing it, replacing postgame seed-cleaning with a game of hacky sack.
“We got a little swagger back, I think,” senior Conner Crumbliss said. “We needed that. We’ve been kind of moping around the last couple of weeks, lost the series at Southern and dropped the first game to these guys, so it’s good to play like we’re better.”
Crumbliss obviously picked up on Fornelli’s message and came out to prove a point on senior day. Crumbliss went 1-for-2 with two RBIs in the opener and then made sure that his possible final game at Trusler — which is a possibility, but more on that later — was one to remember.
Crumbliss led off Game Two with a triple and scored on Zach Theadman’s groundout to put ESU ahead 1-0. With one out in the third, he came up again and drew a walk, which started a three-run inning that gave the Hornets a comfortable 5-0 lead.
In the Hornets’ three-run fourth inning, Crumbliss drove in the first run with a single and eventually scored again. He walked and scored again in the sixth. And, for his final at-bat, he smashed the ball to the centerfield wall for a double, and of course, he scored again.
“Our team runs on Conner Crumbliss,” Fornelli said. “Conner Crumbliss was great that second game. He scores five runs, goes 3-for-3, does a lot of great things. When he’s good, we’re good.”
The ESU offense needed a breakout game after scoring only five runs on Friday. Even in Game One on Saturday, they had only seven hits and one extra-base hit.
In Game Two, they scored in every inning but the fifth, and big surprise, Crumbliss didn’t get an at-bat that inning.
Mike Sharp and Anthony Dreiling both hit home runs, which ended a bit of a power slump. The Hornets had hit only one home run in their last seven games.
Sharp teed off first for his team-leading 13th homer, hitting a deep fly ball down the left field line that appeared to hook foul. Sharp even hesitated as he rounded first.
“It was a foul ball,” Sharp admitted. “I was very surprised. I stopped at first base and was about ready to run back and have a full count, and I saw the umpire down the third-base side say it was fair.”
Dreiling led off the seventh with his fourth home run of the season. Dreiling joined Crumbliss for the team lead with three hits and he also tied Theadman with a game-high three RBIs.
The ESU starting pitching also got its mojo back on Saturday.
Ryan Anthony threw a complete game seven-inning shutout in Game One, giving up only four hits and striking out a season-high nine. Anthony (8-2) was coming off one of his worst outings of the season at Southern. Against the Lions, he gave up six runs in three innings.
“It feels good to get some confidence back,” Anthony said. “I didn’t pitch well last week, just need to get my confidence back and I feel like this really helps us out.”
Ben Graham also bounced back from a poor outing against Missouri Southern. Graham (6-3) gave up two runs on six hits and also had six strikeouts and zero walks.
Emporia State (42-10, 29-7 MIAA) enters the MIAA tournament on Friday in Kansas City as the No. 1 seed and could see a return back to the South Central Region’s No. 1 seed with a strong showing.
The Hornets dropped to No. 2 in the rankings last week with Cameron jumping ahead. Cameron lost one game at the Lone Star conference tournament this weekend, so the Hornets should be able to play themselves back into the top spot, which would guarantee that they host the regional tournament.
Hosting the regional is important, but after Friday’s split, Fornelli was questioning whether his team would even make the regional. He wouldn’t guarantee it on Saturday, but he at least gave his team some credit.
“We played better. Again, we just want to play with a passion and a little bit of heart,” Fornelli said. “I ask our guys two things every day — to compete and play hard — and I don’t know that we did that yesterday. ... The other two things you can do is you can control your attitude and your effort. Neither one of those were very good yesterday. I thought they were very good today.”
Saturday at Trusler
Game One
Emporia State 5, Southwest Baptist 0
Southwest Baptist 000 000 0 — 0 4 3
Emporia State 032 000 X — 5 7 2
WP — Anthony. LP — Burrell.
E — SBU: Wise, Simonds, Morris; ESU: Dreiling. DP — SBU 1, ESU 1. LOB — SBU 6, ESU 8. 2B — ESU: Sharp. HBP — ESU: Wempe. SH — SBU: Roller. SF — ESU: Cotton. SB — ESU: Theadman, Wempe, Cotton. CS — Asher. Reached on CI — ESU: Williamson.
Game Two
Emporia State 13,
Southwest Baptist (8 innings)
Southwest Baptist 000 020 10 — 3 9 2
Emporia State 113 301 13 — 13 12 1
WP — Graham. LP — Seay.
E — SBU: Asher, Barnhart; ESU: Theadman. LOB — SBU 7, ESU 7. 2B — ESU: Crumbliss. 3B — SBU: Asher; ESU: Crumbliss. HR — SBU: Cox; ESU: Dreiling, Sharp. HBP — ESU: Wempe. SH — ESU: Cotton. SB — SBU: Roller; ESU: Crumbliss, Theadman, Burkhead