The Royals salvaged a split out of Sunday's long road trip to Emory & Henry.  The 5-4 win in the nightcap snapped a three-game ODAC losing skid and put the baseball men at 8-7 overall and 2-3 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

Emory & Henry 11, EMU 7
Despite getting hits in the opener, the Royals left one runner on in each of the first four innings and trailed 5-0 after four.

EMU loaded the bases with no one out in the fifth and finally broke through with three runs, but Emory & Henry got two back in the bottom of the frame.  The Royals couldn't mount any momentum after that, as the two teams traded single runs in the sixth and three spots in the eighth of the 11-7 final.

Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring) had one hit and two walks, and Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) had two hits and one walk.  Each of the two scored a run and knocked in another.  Ian Norris (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) batted 2-4 with a walk and a run.  Justin Rodriguez (Miramar, Fla./Monsignor Edward Pace) had two hits and two runs, while Nic Love (Bedford, Va./Staunton River) was 2-4 with a run and an RBI.

Starter Aaron Hoover (Carroll, Va./Carroll County) did not have his best stuff and took the loss, giving up eight of the runs in 5.0 innings.  David Meehan (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) gave up three in 3.0 inning in relief.

EMU 5, Emory & Henry 4
There were surprisingly few runs in the nightcap considering each team had 14 hits.  The Royals strung together five of theirs to grab a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

The Wasps scored once in the third, but starting pitcher Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) left the bases load.  In the next inning, Armstrong helped his own cause with a two-run, two-out single to left, pushing the edge to 5-1.

EMU's offense struggled to piece anything together after the fourth, leaving at least one runner on base in each inning after that expect for the seventh.  But Armstrong and reliever Austin Marzullo (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) stranded six Wasps on base over the final four innings, earning the one-run win.

Kyle Mathews (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) had a game high three hits.  Stanley, Hall and Rodriguez each had a pair of hits. 

Armstrong finished 2-4 at the plate with two RBIs and a one run.  On the mound, he went seven strong innings, giving up four runs to earn his second win of the year.  Marzullo pitched two scoreless innings to get the save.

The Royals continue a stretch of road games this week, playing back-to-back games at nationally ranked ODAC squads.  On Tuesday EMU heads to No. 19 Bridgewater, before traveling to No. 14 Shenandoah on Wednesday.  Both games start at 4:00pm.