The Emporia Gazette

February 13, 2012

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CARY, N.C. — Jacob White made the lonely jog back to the dugout, avoiding the rush of Lynn’s bench. Andy Cotton kneeled in the on-deck circle. Caleb Williamson sat with his head down outside the dugout and the rest of the Hornets leaned motionless against the dugout railing.

This time around Emporia State had to watch someone else celebrate. On Saturday, the Hornets finally saw their hot streak end, falling to Lynn 2-1 in the National Championship game.

“We’ve got to keep our heads up, nothing to hang our heads about,” ESU coach Bob Fornelli said. “We had an incredible year. That’s a great baseball game right there, we just came up a little short.”

Throughout the postseason, the Hornets relied on great pitching and timely hitting. Ben Graham provided another gem for the ESU pitching staff, but the Hornets waited for the timely hit and it never came.

Lynn pushed across runs in the second and third against Graham, and the Lynn pitchers kept the Hornets off the board in the final eight innings.

Emporia State took a 1-0 lead in the first when Conner Crumbliss led off the bottom of the inning with a single and later scored on a Kellen Lane ground out to give ESU its only run.

The Hornets had chances in the second, third, sixth and seventh innings, but they could never get across another run.

For the second straight game, the Hornets and Conner Crumbliss were upset by an umpire’s ruling. On Thursday, the home plate umpire failed to give Crumbliss time out, which lit a fire under the Hornets and led to a Kellen Lane walkoff home run.

But on Saturday, the questionable call proved costly.

Crumbliss hit a one-out single in the seventh inning and tried to steal second with Kenny Burkhead up to bat and two outs. Crumbliss’ hand appeared to touch second base before Lynn shortstop Chad Crowe tagged Crumbliss below his knee, but Crumbliss was called out to end the inning.

Crumbliss jumped up and argued the call, and the Hornets never had another runner reach base.

“I thought I was in there,” Crumbliss said. “I thought it was a tag on the lower-part of my leg, but the umpire didn’t beat us. We didn’t win. It’s not their fault.”

Emporia State had just started to make good contact against Lynn starter Dan Wright. Both Crumbliss and Kevin Wempe hit deep fly balls in the seventh but both drifted foul. A straighter Wempe shot would have given the Hornets the lead.

Wright (15-2) went seven innings and settled in after the first and only gave up more than one hit in the third inning when Caleb Williamson and Lane had back-to-back two-out singles.

Jacob White hit a one-out triple in the second inning and was stranded at third after Andy Cotton and Crumbliss popped out.

Lane hit a one-out single in the sixth, stole second and moved to third on a Mike Sharp ground out. Caleb Williamson walked and White flew out.

“We just couldn’t get a big hit,” Crumbliss said. “We got a lot of opportunities with runners in scoring position. We just couldn’t get the big hit to get them in.”

The Knights tied the game in the second on a sacrifice fly to left by Crowe. They took the lead on a RBI single down the right field line by Chris Chavez that snuck past a diving Burkhead at first base in the third inning. It was the final and deciding run.

Graham pitched out of trouble in the first four innings, leaving six runners on base. He then pitched perfect innings in the fifth and sixth.

After back-to-back singles in the seventh, Graham got his ninth strikeout of the game and then forced a pop out to end the threat.

“Ben Graham did an extremely good job pitching,” Lynn coach Rudy Garbalosa. “He really had us baffled with that slider.”

Lynn again had two base runners reach in the eighth — a hit batsman and a walk — but Graham ended his day and the inning with his career-high 10th strikeout.

Graham (8-4) scattered nine hits over eight innings and picked up the loss.

“I felt OK,” Graham said. “I just gave it everything I had. I’ve just got to find a way to give up zero runs, instead of two runs. I just didn’t get it done I guess.”

The Hornets' two losses in the postseason were both by a score of 2-1, the other coming to Central Missouri in the Regional tournament.

After going 4-6 to finish the season, Emporia State got hot at the Regional tournament and continued its hot streak all the way to the championship game.

“The kids battled, rallied up and did everything they could to get here and in the South Central Regional was an amazing feat to come in and get after it there,” Fornelli said. “Winning the first three games here and having an opportunity to win the National Championship, they had nothing to hang their heads about. They battled all the way through.”