A day after splitting a doubleheader with Guilford, the EMU baseball team tested the depth of their pitching staff with a rescheduled twinbill against Randolph-Macon.  With the Yellow Jackets also having played two on Saturday, the offenses ruled the day.  But it was the visiting R-MC squad which had the edge, taking a sweep from the Royals.

Randolph-Macon 7, EMU 5
Eastern Mennonite took their first and only lead with three runs in the bottom of the third.  Jonathan Estrada (Miami, FL/Doral Academy) ripped a two-run double and B.J. Mortimer (Mechanicsville, VA/Lee-Davis) brought him in with a double of his own.

But the Yellow Jackets responded quickly with two runs in the top of the fourth, and had a lead 4-3 heading into EMU's half of the sixth.  Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, VA/Riverheads) led off with a single, and tied the score at 4-4 when Austin Oliver (Gordonsville, VA/Orange County) singled him in.

After a scoreless seventh, R-MC plated three runs in the top of the eighth to go ahead 7-4.  With two runners on base in the bottom of the inning, Oliver nearly tied it again with a drive to left field.  But the Yellow Jackets' outfielder caught the ball as he crashed into the wall, and EMU settled for one run on the sacrifice fly.

The men got two runners on in the ninth, but a pair of strikeouts ended the game.

Armstrong led the 13-hit attack with three hits.  He also scored twice.  Mortimer went 2-3 with a walk, while Estrada had a pair of doubles and two RBIs.  Adam Posey (Poquoson, VA/Poquoson) also had a pair of singles, while Oliver had two RBIs.

Casey Harlow (Louisa, VA/Louisa County) started and pitched 7.1 innings.  He was charged with six runs and took the loss to slip to 4-3.  Chris DeWald (Williamsburg, VA/Lafayette) threw in relief.

Randolph-Macon 11, EMU 7
The Yellow Jackets scored in six of the nine innings in the nightcap, and had a 4-0 lead before EMU scored.  Posey had an RBI double to start a three-run rally in the third.  Ryan McAlister (Bridgewater, VA/Turner Ashby) brought him in with a triple, and then scored on a two-out error.

That started a stretch of six straight at-bats where one of the teams scored.  Estrada shot a leadoff homerun in the fifth for EMU, but Randolph-Macon put up their fifth two-spot in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 10-6.

The offenses slowed down from there.  Estrada had an RBI single in the seventh and R-MC plated an insurance run in the ninth to produce the final 11-7 score.

Eastern Mennonite had a balanced attack, with Posey, McAlister, Estrada, Mortimer, and Phillip Jordan (West Point, VA/Christchurch) each reaching base twice.  Posey and Estrada each had two RBIs, while McAlister and Jordan each scored twice.

Oliver took the start and took the loss, giving up six runs in 4.0 innings.  Four pitchers threw in relief, but the staff was hurt by five unearned runs courtesy of three EMU errors.

The sweep drops the Royals to 14-17 overall and 4-9 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.  They have a few days to recuperate from 39 innings of baseball in the span of 31 hours before they host Bridgewater on Wednesday.  Game time in Harrisonburg is 4:00pm.