LYNCHBURG, VA --- The Royals continue to pick up wins in places where there weren't expected to. The baseball men came from behind to knock off Lynchburg in the second game of Saturday's road doubleheader, giving Eastern Mennonite wins over four of the six teams which went to the ODAC Tournament last spring.
With seven Old Dominion Athletic Conference games left, EMU (12-11, 6-7 ODAC) already has as many wins in the conference as they had last year, despite being picked 10th out of 11 teams in the 2015 preseason poll. The men sit seventh in the ODAC standings, a half game behind Hampden-Sydney for the sixth and final tourney berth.
The Royals host Ferrum in non-conference action on Tuesday, starting at 4:00pm, before playing five straight ODAC games.
Lynchburg 7, EMU 0
The opener of the twinbill was basically even, except for one bad inning.
LC had a 1-0 lead until the floodgates opened in the bottom of the third. After starting pitcher Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) had retired the first two batters on ground balls, the next seven Hornets got hits, plating six runs and chasing Armstrong from the hill.
The Royals got at least one runner on base in the next three innings, but a pair of double plays helped keep them off the board. LC starter David Goulding then kept Eastern Mennonite hitless over the final three frames to shut the door.
Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) had two of EMU's four hits.
Armstrong suffered his first loss of the year in 2.2 innings of work. Aaron Weaver (Sugar Creek, Ohio/Hiland) allowed just one walk and no hits in 4.1 innings of relief while Kyle Johnson (Nathalie, Va./Rustburg) added a scoreless eighth.
EMU 8, Lynchburg 7
The Hornets combined three hits with two EMU errors to take a 4-0 lead in the first inning of the second game, but the men plated their first run of the day thanks to a Lynchburg error in the second.
The home team got the unearned run back in the fourth to make it 5-1 before the Royals finally put some hits together in the top of the fifth. They loaded the bases with one away and Ryan Hedrick (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) brought in one with a single up the middle. Justin Rodriguez (Miramar, Fla./Monsignor Edward Pace) added a two-run double to slice the deficit to 5-4 before a double play ended the inning with two runners on base.
Three errors gave Lynchburg another unearned run in the sixth. Rodriguez got it back in the seventh with an RBI single, making it 6-5.
Nic Love (Bedford, Va./Staunton River) led off the eighth with a single and Hall's two-out RBI single tied the game. Armstrong then got the winning rally going with a leadoff single in the ninth. He eventually scored on a wild pitch for the go-ahead run, and Kyle Salladay (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) added an RBI single to make it 8-6.
The insurance run became vital in the bottom of the ninth as Lynchburg had runners on second and third with two outs. A single up the middle brought in one run, but EMU's defense tagged out the other runner trying to get back to third, ending the game.
The Royals pounded out 15 hits to make up for their six errors, as only three of LC's runs were earned.
Rodriguez finished 3-4 with three RBIs and a run. Hall was 3-5 with two runs and an RBI, while Hedrick was 3-4 with a walk, run and RBI. Armstrong reached base twice with a single and walk, scoring both times, and Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring) also had a pair of hits. EMU pinned the loss on reliever Brandon Miller, who was an All-ODAC First Team selection last year.
Aaron Hooven (Carroll, Va./Carroll County) gave up five runs in 4.1 innings, although only two were earned. Austin Marzullo (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) improved to 1-2 by allowing just one hit over 3.2 innings of relief, while Hall came in after a leadoff walk in the ninth and earned his first career save.