Baseball is back in full force as the opening day festivities have passed and the major league teams begin their campaigns to October. High school level baseball has also started, and the Emporia High Spartans opened with a two-game set on the road against Ottawa, in which they split the games.
Game one got off to a quick start as the Spartans opened with a three-run first inning. Micah Gray got on base first with a single, then the Spartans drew three consecutive walks, which led to the Spartans going up 2-0. A groundout from Colton Eubanks scored the third run of the inning to give the Spartans an early lead.
Starting game one for the Spartans was Chase Harrington, and he started the game with a shutdown inning, working around a single, a walk, and a hit by pitch. The top of the second saw the bats get back to work for the Spartans as they worked with some “two-out lightning.” After the first two batters were retired, Grady Howe singled, followed by a Gray double. Harrington then came up and cleared the bags with a two-RBI triple to extend the lead to 5-0.
The bottom of the second inning became an issue for Harrington as a mix of control issues and Ottawa’s bats getting going led to a big inning. The first two batters drew walks, then a single loaded the bases for Ottawa. A two-RBI double for Ottawa would follow that up, and they drew another walk after to get more runners on base. Harrington looked to close out the inning, getting the second out via a strikeout, but a three-RBI double tied it the batter after. Ottawa drove in their sixth run of the inning off an error, and Harrington got out of the inning with another strikeout, but Ottawa took a 6-5 lead.
After a chaotic first two innings, the pitching settled in for both teams, holding each other scoreless for the next three innings. The top of the sixth was the return of the Spartan bats as Eubanks opened the inning with a walk. Luke Marshall then also drew a walk before Oliver Kline singled in a run. Howe singled in two more runs as the Spartans took an 8-6 lead. Harrington, after the second inning, dominated on the mound, holding Ottawa off the scoreboard in five of his six innings of work.
Speaking of Harrington, in the seventh inning, he opened it with a single to set up another scoring chance. An error from the Ottawa defense allowed him to score the ninth run of the game, and an RBI single from Eluterio Trujillo made it 10-6. Trujillo came in to pitch the bottom of the inning and closed out the game for the Spartans for the first win of the season.
Game two saw Eubanks get the start for the Spartans, but it wasn’t a clean start as Ottawa scratched across two runs in the opening inning. The Spartan bats struggled in this one as they would be held scoreless through most of the game. Ottawa added two more runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to make it 6-0 heading into the final stretch of the game.
In the top of the sixth, Gray’s RBI single was the only run the Spartans could muster in the game as they split the series with a 6-1 loss in game two. With a 1-1 start to the season, the Spartans will look to play their home opening series against Wichita South on March 27 at Sodens Grove.