Emporia State athletics had another busy weekend as temperatures improved going into Sunday.
The Emporia State track and field team picked up a pair of event wins on the final day of the Friday Night Lights hosted by Northwest Missouri on Saturday. Braden Lipgens won the men’s 400m dash while Addy Scheve jumped 33 feet-5 3/4 inches to win the women’s triple jump. The event wrapped up the regular season for the indoor track & field season. The Hornets are next in action at the MIAA Championships back in Maryville, Mo. beginning Friday.
The men’s tennis team stayed perfect on the season with a 7-0 win against Sterling on Saturday. All three doubles matches ended 6-2 for ESU to sweep the doubles point. Anton Sarunic took the win at #1 singles while Mostafa Elbasnaly took care of #2 singles. Hachem Fahem clinched the dual with a victory at #3 singles. The Hornets swept all six singles matches in straight sets. ESU heads to Texas Friday to face Metro State-Denver.
The baseball team stumbled out of the gate in two losses to Pittsburg State to open MIAA play on Sunday. Pittsburg State won the series with a 15-1 victory in game one and clinched it with a 7-3 win in game two. The Hornets never got going offensively after Pitt State started the game with four runs in the bottom of the first in game one. Noah Steele drove in the only run of the game for the Hornets. The Gorillas struck first again in game two with three doubles to take a 2-0 lead. PSU tacked on five more runs to take a 7-0 lead into the eighth. Dominic Felix drove in a run with a double in the eighth and Logan Myers drove in two in the ninth on a triple but the ESU rally fell short. The series finale is Monday beginning at 1:00 p.m.
The softball team went 1-1 in their first day of a delayed Washburn Invitational after beating Concordia-St. Paul 2-1 in their first game of the weekend before falling 11-3 to Minnesota State-Mankato in their second game in Topeka. The Lady Hornets struck first in their first at bats of the game scoring a leadoff walk. Mallory Moore drove the winning run in the sixth after the Golden Bears tied the game in the third. Jordan Harrison tossed a complete game for the win. MSU-Mankato scored the first run of the game but E-State answered with a two-run RBI double by Avery Brewer in the bottom of the first. It was all Mavericks after that as the Lady Hornets scored just once more while the Mavericks cranked a pair of home runs to extend their lead. Day two of the Washburn Invitational begins Monday at 1:30 p.m.
