Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
20-31
Butler
32-16
Baseball Can't Keep Up With Butler in Non-Conference Finale
5/15/2018 9:21:00 PM | Baseball
EMU tallied its 24th double-digit hit output of the season
Eastern finished with 11 hits on the day, including three multi-hit games. Junior Max Schuemann (Portage, Mich.-Portage Northern) tallied a three-hit day, his fourth such game of the season. Sophomore Zachary Owings (Saline, Mich.-Saline) continued his hot streak with a three-run home run, his sixth of the season. That was one of two hits that extended his on-base streak to 28 games, as well as his hit streak to 10 games, his third 10-gamer hitting streak of the year.
Freshman Shane Easter (Kalamazoo, Mich.-Comstock) was the two-way start of the game, playing right field as well as pitching. The rookie tallied an RBI double while also tossing two scoreless innings, only allowing two base runners.
Butler built a steady lead early in the game, scoring two in the first, three in the second, and one in the third to take a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the third. In the bottom of the third, EMU got on the board with authority as Owings smacked a three-run home run to right field. His sixth homer of the year cut the deficit in half into the fourth.
The Bulldogs continued to score runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, the latter a two-run inning, to get the lead back up to 10-3 into the bottom of the sixth. There, EMU got one back when Easter ripped a double over the head of the left fielder to plate a runner, making it 10-4 with three to play.
Another Butler run crossed the plate in the top of the seventh, this one unearned after an error, to make it 11-4 into the stretch. The Eagles tallied a pair in the bottom of the seventh, one on an RBI single from junior John Rensel Jr. (Tallmadge, Ohio-Tallmadge), the other on a bases loaded hit by pitch from Jared Kauffman (Springboro, Ohio-Bishop Fenwick), to keep it relatively close into the eighth.
Easter then went to work on the mound, pitching scoreless eighth and ninth innings to keep it a five-run game for EMU, but the offense was not able to crawl any closer, sealing the defeat.
EMU has a quick turnaround as they welcome Northern Illinois into Oestrike Stadium for the home and season-finale weekend series. The three-game set begins Thursday, May 17, with a 6 p.m. first pitch.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: NAPOLEON, Kevin (2-2)
L: Granzotto, Scott (0-3)
Batting:
2B: JAROSZ, Zach 1 ; FREED, Harrison 1
3B: GARGANO, James 1
RBI: HOUSTON, Tyler 2 ; PARKER, Gehrig 2 ; HARTNAGEL, Michael 2 ; CHRISTMAN, Garrett 1 ; FREED, Harrison 1 ; MALLOY, Cole 1 ; GARGANO, James 2
SF: HOUSTON, Tyler 1 ; CHRISTMAN, Garrett 1 ; GARGANO, James 1
Base Running:
RUNS: JAROSZ, Zach 2 ; HOUSTON, Tyler 2 ; HARTNAGEL, Michael 1 ; CHRISTMAN, Garrett 1 ; FREED, Harrison 1 ; PARKER, Zach 3 ; GARGANO, James 1
HBP: PARKER, Gehrig 1 ; PARKER, Zach 1
Batting:
2B: Easter, Shane 1
HR: Owings, Zachary 1
RBI: Owings, Zachary 3 ; Rensel Jr., John 1 ; Kauffman, Jared 1 ; Easter, Shane 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Jones, Nate 2 ; Schuemann, Max 1 ; Owings, Zachary 2 ; Rensel Jr., John 1
SB: Schuemann, Max 1 ; DeVenney, Luke 1
HBP: Gora, Eli 1 ; Kauffman, Jared 1
