From Emory University Athletics
Junior Chris Young provided the heroics for the Emory University baseball team on Wednesday afternoon with a bloop single to right to bring home the winning run in the 11thinning to give Emory a 5-4 win over MIT, The Eagles are now 19-6 on the season while the Engineers fell to 2-5.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth, junior Brian Hernandez had a clutch RBI triple to the right center field gap that split the outfielders and went all the way to the wall. Hernandez, hustling all the way out of the box, reached third standing up for his first three-bagger of the season. Senior Dylan Eisner came around to score all the way from first to tie the score at 3-3. Hernandez later scored the go ahead pitch on a wild pitch by the Engineers.
MIT was able to tie the game at 4-4 in the ninth on a double steal. Echevarria stole home after Garrett Greenwood was able to get in a rundown between first and second. Echevarria started the inning by reaching and advancing to second on a throwing error by junior Luke Emmett.
Junior Cody Wetmore led off the bottom of the 11th with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice by freshman Jackson Grayson. With two outs in the inning, Young lifted one to shallow right field which dropped right in front of a diving Alec Echevarria, allowing Wetmore to come home for the winning run. The victory was the first extra inning win for Emory this season as the team was 0-2 before Wednesday.
Junior Kyle Monk went three innings to earn his first win of the season. After working a clean 10th inning, MIT had back-to-back base hits to begin the 11th. Monk recorded the first out via a sacrifice and intentionally walked Greenwood to load the bases. Monk picked up a strikeout for the second out before forcing Austin Filiere to ground into a fielder's choice to end the threat. Monk finished with three hits allowed through his three frames with one walk and two strikeouts.
Junior Jackson Weeg made his seventh start of the season, working six innings and giving up three runs (1 ER) on six hits. Weeg had six strikeouts compared to two walks. Emmett was solid in his relief appearance, not allowing a hit in two innings, with his only blemish being his throwing error to lead off the ninth.
Emory returns to the diamond on Saturday with a doubleheader against Chicago and LaGrange. First pitch against the Maroons is set for noon with the contest versus the Panthers to follow at 3:00pm.
Notes
Head Coach Mike Twardoski moved one win shy of the 500 wins milestone, now sitting with a career record of 499-230-1. Only three other head coaches in Emory Athletics history have reached the 500 wins plateau: Don Schroer formally of Men's Tennis and current head coaches Jenny McDowell of Volleyball and Penny Siqueiros of Softball. Twardoski would become the 39th active head coach at the NCAA Division III to reach 500 career victories.