An early deficit was too much for the baseball team Wednesday.  Despite banging out 15 hits and out-scoring Southern Virginia 6-3 over the final half of the game, the Royals lost 13-6 to the Knights in non-conference play.

SVU's bats got on a roll early, starting with a one-out double in the top of the first.  The visitors scored in each of the first six innings, and led 10-0 before EMU even got on the board.

Phillip Jordan (West Point, VA/Christchurch) led off the bottom of the fifth with a single to trigger Eastern Mennonite's rally.  The Royals batted around, scoring four runs on five hits with one key SVU error to trim the deficit to 10-4.

But the Knights scored an unearned run in the sixth before both offenses quieted down.  SVU got two more in the eighth to push the lead back up to 10 runs.

EMU rallied in the bottom of the ninth, as David Kiser (Staunton, VA/Fort Defiance) reached on a one-out error to get things rolling.  The men had three hits and scored twice, but left the bases loaded to get saddled with the loss.

The Royals got runners on base in each of the first six innings, but also left 12 men on base.  Zach Bowles (Staunton, VA/ Robert E. Lee) led the attack, going 3-4 with an RBI.  Justin Rodriguez (Miramar, FL/Pace) continued his hot hitting and went 2-4 with two RBIs.

Ryan McAlister (Bridgewater, VA/Turner Ashby) and Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, VA/Riverheads) each had a pair of singles.

Chris DeWald (Williamsburg, VA/Lafayette) was tagged with five runs in 1.2 innings and took the loss to fall to 1-2.  EMU ended up using seven pitchers in a "staff day."

The Royals return to ODAC play this weekend with two big doubleheaders at home.  Eastern Mennonite hosts Guilford Saturday at noon, followed by Randolph-Macon Sunday at 12:30pm.