EMU outslugged by W&L in 11-9 loss

EMU baseball came out on the short end of the stick in a wild affair at Washington and Lee Tuesday afternoon, losing 11-9. The Royals out-hit W&L and led by as many as five runs before dropping their third straight ODAC decision.

The two teams get a rematch Wednesday afternoon in Harrisonburg. First pitch is at 3:00pm.

Playing in Lexington on Tuesday, Eastern Mennonite (10-9/1-4 ODAC) scored the first four runs in the game, getting a two-run single from Ryan Hedrick (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) in the first, and RBI singles from Kyle Mathews (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) and David Meehan (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) in the third.

Starter Jake Brown (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) had a perfect three innings in his first time through the Generals’ lineup before getting tagged with two unearned runs in the fourth. W&L (14-6/5-0 ODAC) added a two-out run in the fifth to get within 4-3 and seemed to be building momentum until Damon Frazier (Waynesboro, Va./Wilson Memorial) led off the top of the seventh with a homerun to left center.

Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring) started the eighth with a single, and the Royals put together a three-run inning to build the margin back up to 8-3.

But the bullpen let Brown down in the bottom of the frame.

Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg), who had gotten his starter out of a jam in the seventh with an inning-ending double play, allowed the first three batters of the eighth to reach. Frazier, a regular weekend starter, came in but allowed five of his six batters to reach. John Dudley (Raphine, Va./Riverheads) finally got a pair of outs, but by then the Generals had combined five hits with two walks, a hit batsman and an EMU error to score eight runs and grab their first lead at 11-8.

Stanley started a two-out rally in the ninth by beating out an infield single. Zach Roberts (Stuarts Draft, Va./Riverheads) brought in one run with an RBI single, but Frazier struck out with two runners on to end the game.

EMU got multi-hit games from five men, out-hitting their hosts 16-12. Mathews was 3-4 with a walk, driving in two runs. Stanley had three singles and scored three times, while Hedrick was 3-5 with two RBIs and a run scored. Frazier and Meehan each added a pair of hits.

Frazier also ended up with the loss in relief, sliding to 3-3. Brown had a quality no-decision, going 6.1 while only allowed one earned run.