The Emory baseball team (5-5) concluded its weekend series against the Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers on Sunday afternoon at Chappell Park in Atlanta. Behind 16 runs on offense and five perfect innings from junior pitcher Bennett Speicher out of the bullpen, the Eagles took the series' rubber match with a 16-4 victory.
Juniors Jack Halloran and Blake Dincman led the way on offense, each going 3-4 at the dish. Halloran drove in two runs and slugged a double off the fence in dead-center, while Dincman drove in one run and kickstarted a six-run third inning for the Eagles.
The Eagles started the game fast, with Halloran driving in a run with an RBI single in the bottom of the first and sophomore Cam Newell picking up an RBI in the bottom of the second. Senior Connor Skertich got the start on the mound for Emory, holding the Fightin' Engineers scoreless in their opening two frames to maintain the Eagles' 2-0 lead.
The Fightin' Engineers got to Skertich in the third inning, though, as he surrendered three runs on four hits before recording an out, as Emory fell behind 3-2. Head coach Mike Twardoski called upon Speicher out of the pen to get his team out of a jam. With men on first and second and no outs, Speicher recorded a force out at third after a ball was bunted back to the mound before striking out the next two batters to stop the bleeding.
Emory started the bottom of the third with two quick outs, still trailing 3-2. But the catcher Dincman wasn't ready to get back behind the dish just yet as he kicked off a two-out rally which saw the Eagles score six runs on six hits and one error from Rose-Hulman. Senior Jacob Grossman broke out of an 0-15 cold spell with a two RBI double down the left field line to regain the lead for the Eagles. Newell picked up his second RBI of the day in the inning as well. The Eagles went to the fourth inning with a commanding 8-3 lead.
Speicher's dominant day on the bump continued over the next four innings, retiring the next 12 batters in order as well. His final line was 5.0 innings with no baserunners allowed and six punchouts while also picking up the win.
Leading 8-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles piled on four more runs for good measure. Halloran drove in another RBI with a double that smashed off the center field wall before a couple more runs came across via a balk and a wild pitch. Sophomore Zach Wasserlauf drove in an RBI with two outs on a single to left field, giving the Eagles a 12-3 lead.
Emory tacked on three more in the bottom of the seventh, with Dincman driving one in and graduate student Nick Wilson lacing a two-RBI single through the left side of the infield. The Eagles added one more in the bottom of the eighth for good measure before Rose-Hulman pushed one across in the top of the ninth, bringing the final score to 16-4.
With the win, the Eagles take the weekend series from Rose-Hulman 2-1 and improve to 5-5 on the season. Emory will now take the road for a stand-alone game against the LaGrange Panthers on Tuesday. The game against the Panthers will be played at Cleaveland Field in Williamson Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 6:00 PM.