More than a month after playing their home opener on Feb. 14, EMU's baseball men finally got back onto their home field Sunday when they hosted John Jay College.  The Royals seemed to enjoy every bit of returning to their home digs, as they dented home 28 times in a total of 12 offensive frames, take a sweep of two seven-inning non-conference games.

Eastern Mennonite improves to 5-4 with the wins.  They finally get into their first Old Dominion Athletic Conference game on Tuesday, hosting rival Bridgewater College in a single game at 4:00pm.

EMU 15, John Jay 4
The men started out well, scoring three runs in each of the first two innings, jumping ahead 6-0.  An ill-timed EMU error in the top of the third opened the door for the Bloodhounds to score all four of their runs, getting within two.

But the Royals kept scoring.  After a single run in the bottom of the third, they scored five more times in the fourth, including Kyle Salladay's (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) second two-RBI hit of the game.

EMU added three more runs over their final two at-bats, and John Jay went down in order in the seventh.

Every Royals starter either got a hit or scored a run.  Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring) batted 3-4 with two runs and an RBI.  Salladay finished 3-4 with four RBIs and two runs.  David Meehan (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) had a pair of singles and Ryan Hedrick (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) picked up two RBIs.  Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) scored four times.

Jake Brown (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) pitched 5.0 innings, allowing just one earned run on three hits with six strikeouts as he improved to 2-1.  Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) and Brad Matthias (Swansboro, N.C./Swansboro) combined for two innings of hitless relief.

EMU 13, John Jay 3
Despite trailing for the first time on the day after John Jay scored a single run in the top of the first, the Royals exploded for seven runs in their first at-bat of the nightcap.  The men put together four hits with three walks and one Bloodhound error to plate all of their runs in unearned fashion.  Kyle Mathews (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) and Justin Rodriguez (Miramar, Fla./Monsignor Edward Pace) each had two-run triples in the big inning.

EMU kept tacking on runs, scoring in the third, fifth and sixth frames to produce the final 10-run margin.

Hall went 3-5 with a run and RBI to set up the offense from the top of the order.  Mathews finished 2-3 with two runs and RBIs, while Rodriguez was 1-3 with a walk, scoring twice and knocking in three.  Nic Love (Bedford, Va./Staunton River) scored three times and Ian Norris (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) scored twice with one RBI.

Kyle Johnson (Nathalie, Va./Rustburg) started and allowed just one run to earn the win.  Aaron Weaver (Sugar Creek, Ohio/Hiland), Andrew Romano (Midlothian, Va./Midlothian) and Brian Vinniski (Vernon, N.J./Vernon Township) each struck out two batters in a single inning of relief.