The Emory University and Case Western Reserve baseball teams combined for 46 runs across 18 innings as the teams split a wild doubleheader at Chappell Park Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.
In the first game of the day, the Eagles outlasted the Spartans 16-14 in a nearly four-hour marathon. Following the 30-run outburst, the teams totaled a more subdued 16 runs in the second game with CWRU holding off a ninth-inning Emory rally to win 9-7.
Junior Matthew Sicoli tied an Emory single-game record with six hits in game one, part of his 7-for-10 performance across the two games. Junior Jack Halloran drove in four runs on the afternoon as he went 4-for-10. Freshman Zach Hanson, making his first two starts of the season, went 4-for-7 with three RBI.
With the split, Emory will head into tomorrow's series finale at 14-11 on the season while the Spartans stand 16-6 overall.
Game 1: Emory 16, CWRU 14
A crazy back-and-forth game that saw seven lead changes ended with the Eagles winning the marathon that took 3:51 to complete. All nine Eagles in the starting lineup had at least one hit as Emory recorded a season-high of 20 and eight of the nine drove in at least one run.
Sophomore Cam Newell brought home the Eagles' first two runs of the game, opening the scoring with double down the left field line in the second before he singled home sophomore Zach Wasserlauf in the fourth to bring the deficit to 3-2.
Newell's run-scoring single jumpstarted the Emory offense as the Eagles scored four times in the fourth to grab the lead at 5-3. From the fourth inning on, Emory scored in each frame including four innings with three runs or more. After tying the game on a balk, Sicoli doubled home freshman Jake Lawson for the go ahead run before coming home on an error.
The Spartans' Jake Anderson provided a boost in the fifth as CWRU regained the lead with a four-run inning of their own. Anderson tied the game with a towering two-run home run to left before the Spartans added two more.
Newell pushed home one more run with his single in the fifth but CWRU again had an answer as the got the run back on a wild pitch to make it 8-6 in the sixth.
The Eagles had another four-run inning in the sixth, tying the game at 8-8 with a two-run triple by freshman Aidan Conley before junior Blake Dincman broke the tie with a two-run home run.
Emory added to its lead with three runs in the seventh but the Spartans again responded, scoring five times in the eighth to take a 14-13 lead.
Hanson came through with a huge hit in the home eighth, tying the score once more with a triple to right before senior Jacob Grossman doubled him home. Grossman later scored Emory's 16th run on a wild pitch.
With the offenses continuing to mash, junior Bennett Speicher provided the needed support on the mound as he worked around a one-out single to toss a scoreless ninth, the first inning either team was held without a run since the top of the fourth, as he earned his second save of the season.
Game 2: CWRU 9, Emory 7
After being held to one run over five innings the Spartans took advantage in the later innings, plating eight runs in the sixth and seventh and withheld a ninth-inning comeback to split the double dip.
CWRU took the lead in the first with one run without the benefit of a hit but the Eagles struck for three in the second. Hanson delivered another big hit, driving in two with a single to push Emory ahead 3-1.
The Eagles held the two-run lead until the sixth with a strong outing turned in from junior Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds held the Spartans in check, taking a no hitter into the fifth inning but some bad luck in the sixth cost him a chance at the win. With two outs, a throwing error extended the inning and led to a two-out, bases-clearing triple to give CWRU the 4-3 lead. The Spartans added to their ledger with five more in the seventh to move in front 9-3.
Down to their final at-bats, the Eagles mounted a rally in the ninth. Emory sent its first five hitters to the plate and with a bases-clearing double from Halloran, brought the deficit to just two. Case Western Reserve then turned to Anderson, who had spent the previous 17 innings as the Spartans' backstop, for the final three outs. Anderson got two quick outs before a hit-by-pitch made it two runners on with two outs. With Dincman at the plate in a pinch-hitting role, the final out came on the basepaths as new CWRU catcher Sean Donahue threw out pinch runner Chris DiVito at second as DiVito was attempting to move up 90 feet on a wild pitch.
The Eagles look to salvage a series split on Sunday when the series finale gets underway at 12:00 PM at Chappell Park.