The Royals showed again how they are a team to be reckoned with, as they hung with No. 9 Shenandoah University Tuesday afternoon in Harrisonburg.  EMU's baseball men, the best hitting team in the ODAC, rapped out nine hits against the league's top pitching team, but also left nine men on base in a 5-3 loss.

Eastern Mennonite lost 14-11 to the same SU team last week in Winchester.

The Hornets started out quickly, scoring on the first batter of the game.  SU's Billy Arens laced a sinking line drive to center, which got past a diving Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring), turning into an inside the park homerun for the speedy Arens.

Shenandoah scored two more in the top of the second to take a 3-0 lead before the Royals even got their first hit.

Ryan Hedrick (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) then led off the bottom of the second with a single and Justin Rodriguez (Miramar, Fla./Monsignor Edward Pace) shot a one-out double.  Both men later scored to get EMU within 3-2.

SU got a quick run in the fourth, but the Royals earned it back in the bottom of the frame.  Rodriguez laced his second double of the game before Kyle Salladay (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) singled him in.  The Hornets snuck in an unearned run with two outs in the sixth to bump the lead to 5-3.

Eastern Mennonite rallied in the seventh, loading the bases with two outs.  But a fly ball ended the threat.  In the bottom of the ninth, the men looked for one last chance.  Ian Norris (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) took a pitch in his back to get on base, but he was erased on a double play ball.  Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) then drew a two-out walk, but a grounder to short ended the hopes for a comeback.

Hedrick led EMU's offense by hitting 3-4 and scoring a run.  Rodriguez doubled twice and scored each time.  Salladay had a pair of RBIs and Hall reached base twice with a single and a walk.

Sophomore Jake Brown (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) had a solid outing on the mound, but took the loss as he gave up all five runs on nine hits in 6.0+ innings of work.  Austin Marzullo (Shippensburg, Pa./Shippensburg) was lights out in relief, holding SU scoreless in 3.0 innings with three strikeouts.

The Royals settle at 10-10 overall and 4-6 in the ODAC as they prepare for another conference date Wednesday afternoon, hosting Washington and Lee at 4:00pm.