In a wild ODAC contest in Winchester on Wednesday, EMU's baseball men tied nationally ranked Shenandoah with a five-run outburst in the sixth inning.  SU, ranked No. 11 in the D3baseball.com poll, retook the lead and then held off a ninth-inning rally from the Royals to beat the men, 14-11.

Eastern Mennonite actually out-hit their hosts, 16-14, but were out-done by committing six errors and walking seven batters.  The two teams combined for ten errors in the game, but Shenandoah didn't give any walks.

The Hornets (11-2-1, 8-1 ODAC) took the game's first lead with four runs in the bottom of the second.  That explosion was capped by a three-run homer, the first of SU's four longballs.  EMU got two runs back in their next at-bat, and then scored one more on an RBI triple from David Meehan (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) in the fourth to get within 4-3.

But Shenandoah rebuilt an 8-3 cushion with an RBI groundout in the bottom of the fourth followed by three more runs in the fifth.

SU then opened the door for the Royals in the sixth, and the men came charging through.  With one out, Justin Rodriguez (Miramar, Fla./Monsignor Edward Pace) swung at a third strike but reached first base because of a wild pitch.  Kyle Salladay (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) then singled to left, but he ended up on third base and Rodriguez scored thanks to a pair of errors on the play.  Despite a strikeout for the second out, Eastern Mennonite kept coming.  Four singles and a catcher's interference later, the men had plated five runs and tied the score at 8-8 on an RBI single from Ryan Hedrick (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby).

The tie didn't last long, however, as the Hornets scored an unearned run in the bottom of the frame, and then brought in three more on a pair of homeruns in the seventh.  In their next at-bat, SU added two more for what looked like an unsurmountable 14-8 lead heading into the ninth.

But the Royals weren't done.  Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) led off by beating out a single to short and Hedrick laced a hit to center.  After a pair of strikeouts, the men resumed a two-out rally.  Salladay singled in one run, and Brandon Carroll (Fredericksburg, Va./Stafford) doubled to the gap in left-center, bringing in two more.  A grounder to shortstop ended the rally, however, leaving the tying run on deck in the 14-11 loss.

Armstrong finished 4-5 from the plate, getting a season high in hits.  He knocked in two runs and scored another.  Salladay, Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) and Nic Love (Bedford, Va./Staunton River) each had a pair of hits and accounted for three runs.  Hedrick and Meehan each had two hits with one RBI and one run.

Garry Ormsby (Maple Shade, N.J./Maple Shade) started on the hill but was chased in the second after giving up four runs.  Each of EMU's six pitchers gave up at least one run, except for Hall who got the final two outs in the eighth.  Aaron Hooven (Carroll, Va./Carroll County), a regular weekend starter who was getting his mid-week workout, was charged with the loss as he gave up three runs in 1.0 inning.

EMU (8-9, 2-5 ODAC) stays on the road this weekend, playing a doubleheader at Hampden-Sydney on Saturday.  First pitch is at noon.