EMU's baseball men plated a total of 19 runs in Saturday's ODAC twinbill at Hampden-Sydney, earning a pair of wins.  Now 10-9 on the year, the Royals are already 4-5 in the conference after finishing 6-14 in the league last spring.

EMU 10, Hampden-Sydney 3
It was a slow offensive start to the day, as the two starting pitchers combined to retire the first 13 batters of game.  The Royals finally got things rolling in the third after Kyle Mathews (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) rapped a one-out single.  Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring) hit a two-run single and Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) added an RBI groundout.

The Tigers quickly tied it, however, opening their half of the third with four straight hits to bring in three.

Mathews was at it again in the fourth, shooting a two-run single to put EMU back in front, 5-3.  H-SC committed a pair of two-out errors in the sixth and the men responded by scoring three more times.  Stanley had a two-run hit in the rally as the lead ballooned to 8-3.  The Royals added two more insurance runs in the ninth, but they didn't need it as their two pitchers, Armstrong and reliever Austin Marzullo (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg), combined to allow just five Tiger baserunners over the final six innings, and never more than one per frame.

The men had a 16-8 advantage in hits and were helped along by four H-SC errors.  Armstrong pitched seven strong innings, scattering seven hits to improve to 3-0.  Marzullo allowed just one hit over the final two frames.

Every EMU batter either had a hit or scored a run, with seven men collecting at least two hits.  Stanley finished 2-5 with four RBIs and a run while Mathews was 3-5 with two runs and two RBIs.

EMU 9, Hampden-Sydney 3
The Royals were actually out-hit in the nightcap, 13-7, but took full advantage of three walks and three Hampden-Sydney errors.  The Tigers got on the board first, going ahead 1-0 on a sacrifice fly in the third.

The men struck an avalanche in the fifth, started by Patrick Love's (Bedford, Va./Staunton River) leadoff double.  His brother, Nic Love (Bedford, Va./Staunton River), singled him in with one out to tie the score.  With two outs, the rally resumed.  When the dust finally settled after two hits, two walks, two hit batsmen, two wild pitches, a passed ball and an error, a total of seven runs had scored as the Royals vaulted in front, 7-1.

EMU brought in two more in the sixth thanks to a wild pitch and error.  Hampden-Sydney scored twice in the bottom of the sixth, but that was it as neither team scored over the final three innings.

Aaron Hooven (Carroll, Va./Carroll County) allowed three runs in 7.1 innings of work to earn the win and move to 1-2.  David Meehan (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) threw 1.2 frames of scoreless relief.

Kyle Salladay (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) batted 2-3 with a walk, scoring one run.  Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) was 1-5 with two RBIs and a run.  Stanley touched home twice while Armstrong and Nic Love each accounted for one RBI and one run scored.

After six games straight on the road over a seven-day stretch, Eastern Mennonite returns home on Tuesday, hosting nationally ranked Shenandoah at 3:00pm.  The Royals then host Washington and Lee Wednesday at 4:00pm.