The Royals nearly doubled their homerun total for the year, but host Hood College used two big innings to knock off EMU by a final of 10-7 in non-conference action Wednesday afternoon in Frederick, Md.

After back-to-back losses outside of the ODAC, Eastern Mennonite steps back into league play this Saturday, hosting Lynchburg College in a key doubleheader. The Royals swept Guilford last Saturday to improve to 6-9 in the ODAC, good for eighth place. LC is 4-11. Sixth-place Roanoke lost to the Quakers Wednesday to sit just two games in front of EMU at 8-7.

EMU took a 3-0 lead on Hood, getting a sacrifice fly in the first and a two-run homer from Adam Marston (Woodstock, Va./Miller School) in the top of the fourth.

But after managing just a single baserunner in each of the first three innings, the Blazers got to starter Jake Brown (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) in the bottom of the fourth, using two walks and six hits to grab a 7-3 lead.

The Royals combined three walks to bring in one run in the fifth, but Hood scored three more runs off EMU's bullpen in their half of the inning to go up 10-4.

Marston had an RBI single in the seventh, and Patrick Love (Bedford, Va./Staunton River) started a two-run eighth with a leadoff homerun, but that would be as close as the men would get.

EMU put together 10 hits and five walks, leaving nine men on base. Marston finished 2-5 with three RBIs and his first collegiate homerun. Jared Jordan (South Hill, Va./Park View) batted 3-4 including a triple and scored once. Zach Roberts (Stuarts Draft, Va./Riverheads) was 2-5 with a run and an RBI and Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) had a single and two walks.

The Royals entered the game with three homeruns on the season.

Brown was tagged for the loss after giving up six runs in 3.2 innings. Josh Sydenstricker (Virginia Beach Va./Ocean Lakes) and Tyler Wilcher (Staunton, Va./Buffalo Gap) combined to keep Hood scoreless over the final 3.1 frames.