This past weekend, Emory’s baseball team took on Maryville College (Tenn.) twice. Emory won the first game by a score of 8-4 and the second by a count of 7-6.
In the first game, Emory fell down 1-0 to start, but the Eagles didn’t let it get to them. The Eagles responded by churning out eight unanswered runs over five innings to make the score 8-1, that was too much for the Scots to overcome.
Senior right fielder Chris Slivka was a big part of the rally, contributing his first two career home runs. The first came in the fourth inning, a two-run blast to left center field that gave Emory the 3-1 lead. Slivka then doubled down with a solo shot in the sixth inning that pushed Emory’s lead to an even larger 7-1 margin. Emory Head Coach Mike Twardoski was surprised at Slivka’s show of power.
“You don’t hit a lot of home runs at Emory,” Twardoski said. “Chris has had a lot of hits that would have been home runs at other parks, but at Emory, they’re tough to come by.”
Junior pitcher Hans Hansen had a brilliant game of his own on the mound. Despite giving up the early run, Hansen buckled down, giving up only three hits after the second inning. Hansen finished with eight innings pitched and four strikeouts. The outing was good for his sixth win of the year. Twardoski praised Hansen and the rest of the pitching staff.
“We have a lot of relief pitchers that haven’t had a lot of games this year because our starting pitching has been so good,” Twardoski said. “We have one of the best closers in Kyle Monk, so it’s a really comfortable ceiling to be able to have somebody going that you don’t need to make a lot of decisions for.”
On Sunday afternoon, the Scots came back for revenge. To start the game, Maryville came in with guns blazing, chipping away with six runs on two singles, one passed ball, one error and a fielder’s choice over the course of the first five innings.
“They got 10 hits, and when that happens they’re gonna put some runs together,” Twardoski said. “They faced one of the best pitchers in the country in [junior] Jackson Weeg, and give credit to Maryville for putting a couple hits together.”
The Eagles didn’t let their pitching staff’s struggles shake their resolve, and in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Eagles overcame the 6-0 deficit to knot the game at six all. Senior first baseman Ben Vizvary and Slivka walked to begin the inning. Sophomore infielder Nick Chambers walk loaded the bases for junior third baseman Philip Maldari. Maldari’s single brought home Vizvary, starting the barrage that ended with a tied ballgame.
The game was stagnant from that point forward, with both teams putting up only two hits between them from the sixth to ninth innings.
However, in the ninth inning, junior designated hitter Brian Hernandez ended the game in dramatic fashion. With one out and no one on base, senior center fielder David Coble doubled to center field. With junior left fielder Wilson Morgan coming to the plate, the Scots elected to create a double play scenario and face Hernandez instead, intentionally walking Morgan in the process.
However, Maryville’s strategy didn’t pay out, and Hernandez promptly chopped the ball into left field, bringing home Coble easily and giving the Eagles the 7-6 victory.
“We haven’t had to come from behind much this year, and when we’ve had our chances, we haven’t come from behind,” Twardoski said. “By having great at-bats, we were able to score the runs to win the game.”
The Eagles will play again on Wednesday, April 6, when they host Birmingham-Southern University (Ala.) at 3 p.m.
Avery Yang is a College sophomore from Los Angeles, California, by way of New York City.
