EMU's efforts at an upset Friday afternoon were thwarted by Shenandoah, as the Hornets, effectively ranked No. 26 in the D3baseball.com poll, ran away with a 20-7 win in Harrisonburg.  Each team hit a pair of homeruns on a spring day dominated by gusty winds blowing out to left field.

The Royals had their four-game winning streak snapped as they slip to 12-6 overall but 0-3 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.  The men head to Randolph-Macon for a conference doubleheader on Saturday.

After a scoreless first, SU (9-2/5-0 ODAC) jumped in front with a single run in the second and eventually led 8-0 before EMU got on the board.  The Royals plated a single run in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, highlighted by Kyle Armstrong's (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) solo homerun in the sixth.

The Hornets scored seven straight runs, however, to push their edge up to 17-3.  In the bottom of the eighth, Eastern Mennonite started to work in some players off the bench, and they started a two-out rally after an SU error.  Joe Hall (Rustburg, Va./Rustburg) slapped a two-run single up the middle, and Brian Vinniski (Vernon, N.J./Vernon Township) followed with a two-run bomb to left.

Shenandoah provided the final margin with a three-run longball in the ninth.

Adam Posey (Poquoson, Va./Poquoson) and Ryan McAlister (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) each had two of EMU's 11 hits.  Armstrong finished 1-3 with two runs and an RBI.  Hall and Vinniski each had one at-bat, and each went 1-1 with two RBIs and a run scored.

The Royals went through six pitchers on the hill, and each of them allowed at least two runs.  Starter Ryan Henschel (New Market, Va./Stonewall Jackson) lasted 2.2 innings and was charged with five runs and the loss to slip to 1-2.

First pitch for EMU in Ashland tomorrow is at noon.