EC Kansas News

Hornets Walk-Off Minot State For 7-6 Win in Series Finale

Emporia State baseball put together a ninth-inning rally to force extra innings before Mason Sturdy, playing on his high school field, drove home the winning run as his chopper up the middle forced an error, giving the Hornets the 7-6 win over Minot State on Sunday afternoon.

Ian Lanik started on the mound for the Hornets on Sunday and retired Minot State in order in the top of the first innings with a pair of strikeouts. In the bottom of the first inning,

Jake Bucovetsky gave Emporia State an early 1-0 lead on just the second pitch of the inning with a solo home run to right center.

Emporia State would add a pair of singles in the inning but were unable to add to their total as they held a 1-0 lead through one inning.

Minot State responded to the Bucovetsky solo home run with one of their own to begin the second inning as the Beavers tied the Hornets 1-1 through the top half of the second inning.

Following a scoreless bottom half of the second for Emporia State and a scoreless third inning for both the Hornets and the Beavers, Minot State took their first lead of the game in the top of the fourth inning as they tallied a pair of solo home runs to take a 3-1 lead over the Hornets.

The Hornets were able to trim the Beaver lead in half in the bottom of the fourth inning. TJ Racherbaumer drew a full count, bases loaded walk to open the inning and later came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Kadyn Williams.

Both teams went scoreless in the fifth inning before Minot State restored their two-run lead with an RBI double down the left field line.

In the bottom of the sixth, Williams tallied his second RBI of the game with a single down the right field line as the Hornets cut the deficit to 4-3 through six innings.

The Beavers would again expand their lead as they hit a two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning as they took a 6-3 lead over Emporia State.

Down to their possible last at-bat in the bottom the ninth, Emporia State was able to rally and eliminate the three-run deficit. Gibrian Pena got the rally started with a one-out walk before Andrew Rantz lifted a two-run home run to right center to make the score 6-5.

Following the Rantz home run, Emporia State drew three walks and a hit by pitch as they tied the game 6-6 to force extra innings.

In the top of the tenth inning, Greg Ross, in his fourth inning of relief, recorded a trio of strikeouts as he stranded two runners and brought the Hornets to the plate in the bottom half of the tenth.

Gibrian Pena started things for Emporia State with a one-out single before advancing to second on a groundout. With two outs, Mason Sturdy hit a chopper up the middle which forced an errant throw and brought Pena around to score, giving the Hornets the 7-6 win in ten innings over Minot State in the series finale.

Four Hornets recorded multi-hit games on Sunday with Gibrian Pena leading the way as he went 3-5 from the plate with two runs scored. Andrew Rantz, Jake Bucovetsky and

Noah Geekie each added two hits of their own while Rantz and Kadyn Williams each tallied two RBI.

Greg Ross earned his first win of the season as he pitched 4.0 innings allowing three hits, two runs and striking out seven batters.

Emporia State will return to action on Friday, February 17 as they begin a four-game series against Augustana (SD). First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.  

Original source can be found here.