KANSAS CITY — As it became clear that Emporia State’s stay in Kansas City was going to be a short one on Saturday, the Hornets’ frustrations bubbled over.
When Andy Cotton watched a pitch sail by on the outside corner, he got up in the umpire’s face, argued the call and became the first ESU player to get ejected from a game in the six-year Bob Fornelli era.
“That’s not what our program is about,” Fornelli said.
Figures, that the team that showed up this weekend at the MIAA tournament hardly resembled Bob Fornelli’s MIAA regular season champion squad.
Central Missouri knocked ESU out with an 8-4 win on Saturday, sending the Hornets packing after just two games in the double-elimination tournament.
The Mules used the same blueprint that Nebraska-Omaha used on Friday to beat ESU — rough up the starting pitcher, jump out to a big lead and ride that to an easy win.
“I just think all around we weren’t ready to play,” ESU senior Conner Crumbliss said. “Everybody else is playing championship baseball and we’re playing like it’s the first week of the season.”
All season the Hornets (42-12) have hung their hat on pitching and defense, but in one of the most important games of the season, both went awry.
Ryan Anthony lasted just 1 2/3 innings, giving up five hits, two walks and spotting the Mules a 5-0 lead in his shortest outing of the season.
Anthony’s poor performance piggybacked Tyler Applehans’ bad start on Friday. The two senior lefties, who were the Hornets top pitchers this season, combined to pitch just 5 2/3 innings and give up 10 runs.
“Starting pitchers the past two games have been getting peppered around a little bit, but it’s on us to score runs and we didn’t do that,” Kenny Burkhead said. “We struggled with the sticks a little bit, but starting down 5-0 is pretty tough to come back from.”
The Hornets were the MIAA’s top-scoring team during the regular season, but they scored just seven runs in two games in Kansas City. They at least gave themselves a chance in the second inning when they scored three runs on four hits with Crumbliss’ two-out double scoring two of the runs.
Central Missouri cushioned its lead by adding another run in the fifth inning. Ben Graham, who pitched well in relief, did not allow a ball to leave the infield in the fifth, but Kevin Wempe and Cotton committed back-to-back errors with two outs, allowing the Mules to take a 6-3 lead.
Burkhead — who went 5-for-10 for the tournament, a lone bright spot — led off the bottom of the fifth with his second homer of the tournament to get the Hornets back within two runs, but that’s as close as they would get.
“This team can do great things,” Burkhead said, “but we’re just struggling right now.”
The Hornets were clearly emotionally bothered by their play.
In the second inning, pitching coach John Martin made a trip to the mound to try to stop the bleeding for Anthony, who had already given up his third run of the day.
Martin chewed out Anthony and catcher Mike Sharp, and the next two hitters Anthony faced got base hits, ending his day.
Emporia State’s hitters were also noticeably frustrated with home plate umpire Dave Boever’s strike zone throughout the game.
In the third inning, Burkhead took what he thought was a fourth ball and started to head to first base and had to return to the plate when Boever called the high and outside pitch a strike.
Crumbliss headed to first and tossed his bat after taking what he thought was a fourth ball in the fourth and also had to return to bat.
The Hornets struck out looking five times and Cotton had finally had enough in the ninth. Fornelli ran down the line to yell at Cotton for his tantrum and only went to the umpire to inform him of Cotton’s replacement.
“Gotta swing the bat,” Fornelli said. “If he’s going to call them out there, you better hit ’em. After the first guy that does that, next guy better swing and protect the plate. We didn’t make an adjustment and they kept throwing it there, and they’re not going to make a change, we’ve got to make a change.”
Thursday’s regional brings a chance for the Hornets to make a change and get back to playing the way they did when they won 19 of 20, a streak that ended just over two weeks ago.
The way they played over these last 10 games, the Hornets were worried on Saturday that they might not even make the regional tournament. But they got the call on Sunday, and now they have new life.
“The team that went 42-10 still hasn’t shown up the last few games,” Burkhead said on Saturday. “It’s tough. I just hope we get that chance to play.”
Saturday at CommunityAmerica Ballpark
Central Missouri 8, Emporia State 4
Central Missouri 230 010 110 — 8 12 0
Emporia State 030 010 000 — 4 9 3
WP — Phillips. LP — Anthony.
E — ESU: Theadman, Wempe, Cotton. DP — ESU 1. LOB — UCM 8, ESU 8. 2B — UCM: Tuttle, Feil, Murphy; ESU: Crumbliss, Lane, Burkhead, Dreiling. HR — UCM: Tuttle, Feil, LaGree; Burkhead. HBP — UCM: Wegener; ESU: Cotton. SH — UCM: LaGree. SB — UCM: Feil. CS — UCM: Schwartz.