Junior Jack Karras loads his hands as he waits for the pitch. Karras and the Eagles hosted the Emory Tournament this past weekend, matching up against Lynchburg College (Va.) on Saturday, Rhodes College (Tenn.) on Sunday and Saint Joseph’s College (Maine) on Monday. | Mark Spicer/Staff
The Emory University baseball team kicked off the 2015 season last weekend with three home wins. The outings came as part of the Emory Tournament, a competition in which the Eagles took first place.
The tournament’s first game began Saturday, against the Lynchburg College (Va.) Hornets, and ended after only seven innings in Emory’s favor due to the mercy rule.
Ace and captain, senior lefty Connor Dillman started the game off on the bump, held the Hornets to two earned runs and struck our four over five innings.
The Eagles offense took charge early on, leadoff hitter and outfielder junior David Coble walking his first at bat. He stole second and then reached third on a throw to first after a captain and outfielder senior Brett Lake strikeout.
Captain and outfielder Wes Peacock was then hit by a pitch, bringing sophomore third baseman Phil Maldari to the plate.
Maldari singled, knocking in Coble, but the inning came to an end one at bat later.
After an offensively unsuccessful second and third innings, the Eagles’ bats lit up.
Junior outfielder Chris Slivka led off the fourth with a hard-hit single down the left side. He stole second, and a single from sophomore second baseman
Dylan Eisner bumped him to third. Junior shortstop Jack Karras knocked Slivka in with a single, and the Eagles went on to add another three runs.
With a 9-3 lead going into the top of the sixth, senior Michael Byman came in to relieve Dillman on the mound. Byman kept the ball low, retiring three of the four batters he faced that inning on ground outs. In the bottom of the inning, Karras knocked in Eisner and Slivka, then scored himself, along with sophomore catcher Austen Maggin off an error.
Byman again only allowed one hit in the top of the seventh, the half inning – and the game – coming to an end with an Eisner to Karras to captain and senior infielder Jordan Selbach double play.
“When you’re just playing intersquads and practicing, you don’t really have the same adrenaline [as in an official game],” Dillman said. “For me it was about saying under control and not letting that adrenaline take hold of me. Once we got the couple innings under us, that’s when we started to really play well and that carried us into the west of the weekend.”
Senior pitcher Connor Dillman hurdles the ball to the home plate. Dillman and the Eagles continue their season this weekend at Milsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. | Mark Spicer/Staff
Sunday, the Eagles faced off with a team they frequently see in the Regional Championships, the Rhodes College (Tenn.) Lynx, with sophomore righty Hans Hansen on the mound. In his six and two thirds innings, Hansen would only surrender two hits and one earned run, while striking out five.
After three and a half scoreless innings, Lake had his eyes on home plate. He singled, stole second and third and scored off a wild pickoff throw from Rhodes freshman pitcher Chip Capper.
The Eagles added another run from a Slivka double, which knocked in Maldari, who had been walked.
That momentum continued into the fifth inning, as Selbach drove Coble in with a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored off a Lake ground out.
In the sixth Karras knocked Eisner in to cap off the Eagles’ scoring at five.After retiring 11-straight batters, Hansen was replaced by sophomore lefty Luke Emmett in the seventh with two outs and Rhodes runners on second and third.
A pinch hit single from Rhodes and an Emory error cleared the bases, and Emmett finished the inning with a six-to-three ground outs.
In the top of the eight, righty Kyle Monk took Emmett’s place on the mound.
Monk allowed only one hit and escaped a ninth inning bases-loaded situation en route to his first save on the season. The game came to a close with a 5-2 Emory lead.
“All three teams are really good,” Peacock said. “Rhodes is one we assume we’ll see in regionals again. We’re excited to back out on the field.”
On Monday, the Eagles took on the St. Joseph’s College of Maine Monks. Sophomore righty Jackson Weeg started off on the mound, notching seven strikeouts and allowing only one earned run over six innings.
The Eagles’ bats again shined, putting up two runs in the third, four in the fourth, and six in the seventh.
Coble led the team in RBIs with three, followed by Maldari and sophomore catcher Chris Young with two a piece. Lake had three hits and Carras rounded the bases three times.
Freshmen Matt Randolph and Danny Kerning relieved Monk in the seventh and eight, Kerning striking out two of three. Senior righty Graham Bloomsmith allowed three hits and an earned run in the ninth, but closed the game with a 12-3, Emory score.
“We saw some things to work on,” Lake said. “In terms of hitting, we weren’t very consistent, but we kind of relied on having big innings. If you look at the box score, there are a lot of zeroes on the board too. We need to focus on consistently hitting well.”
The team will take on Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where they will then face Webster College (Mo.) and re-match Rhodes over the weekend.
“We know what we’re going to get with Rhodes because we’ve played them many times,” Peacock said. “We’re not going to take them lightly because they’re a very good team.”
The Eagles finished second in the country last season, and the team’s captains want their teammates to keep that in mind as the season progresses, Dillman said.
“The success we had last year is bringing an attitude of expecting to win,” he said. “Our program really expects to win. All three games this weekend are going to be pretty good, but as captains, we’re just trying to foster that attitude.”
Former Editor-in-Chief | Zak Hudak is from Pittsburgh, Pa. and majored in Classics and Philosophy. He attended The Hill School, a boarding school outside of Philadelphia, where he earned varsity letters in track and baseball and was the Sports Editor and then Editor in Chief of The Hill News. While at Hill, Zak was mentored by former Washington Post Editor and Copy Chief of two Pulitzer Prize winning teams, Tony Reid. Zak Joined the Wheel's Editorial Board his freshman year as Asst. Sports Editor.
