Tough week gets tougher: Emory & Henry jumps on Maryville College early
By Grant Ramey | (grantr@thedailytimes.com)
Emory & Henry showed up hitting Wednesday at Scotland Yard. Maryville College didn’t show up at all.
The visiting Wasps used 13 hits to score 12 runs off of seven Scot pitchers, scoring five runs over the first two innings and adding three more in the fourth en rout to a 12-4 win.
“We got outplayed in every aspect of the game — pitching, defense, offensively, coaching, it didn’t matter,” MC coach Paul Henry said. “We were outworked and outplayed today. It was not a banner day for us.
“We definitely didn’t show up.”
Matthew McInaw (1-0) got the win for Emory & Henry (3-4), giving up a run scattering three hits over six innings. He held the Scots hitless before Landon Talley started the MC fifth with a stand-up triple.
Starter Keylon Holloway (0-1) took the loss for the Scots (4-5), lasting two innings before giving up five runs — three earned — on seven hits.
“We’ve struggled early in games all year,” Henry said. “And today was no different, giving up five runs early on.”
Talley and Zack Blonder were the only Scots with multi-hit days, both with two each. Blonder had two of MC’s three RBIs, including a double in the fifth to follow Talley’s triple, giving the Scots their first run of the day after the Wasps jumped out to the 8-0 lead.
Talley scored two of the Scots’ four runs. Zach Toner had a hit and a run scored and Shawn Ambrose used a fielders’ choice to record an RBI in the seventh.
Tyler Hopkins, a freshman from Heritage, replaced Holloway, a sophomore from Maryville, to start the third, retiring E&H in order. By then, though, the damage had been done.
Emory & Henry used a sacrifice fly from Connor Wise and an RBI single from Chase Kirk to score a pair of runs in the first.
Jordan Woullard, Eric Houff and Branson Christopher also added singles in the inning as the visitors sent seven Wasps to the plate in both the first and the second innings.
Zack Hill, Caleb Rotton and Woullard came around to score in the second on a two-RBI single from Houff and another sac fly from Wise, making it 5-0 in favor of Emory & Henry.
The Wasps used a pair of singles and a Hopkins error to score three more in the fourth.
Sam Line singled and scored in the fifth on a Houff RBI single and Wise followed with a two-run home run to left field to give Emory & Henry a commanding 11-1 lead.
“Our hitters didn’t really do anything about (the early deficit),” Henry said, “and obviously they hit everything we threw, and hats off to them, they played a lot better than we did today.
“We didn’t really do much to stem the tide.”
After a weekend sweep at Christopher Newport, the Scots have now dropped four-straight games and four of five since a 3-0 start to the season.
“We had a tough weekend at CNU where we were behind,” Henry said. “Outside of that, we had played pretty good up to that point. But something that weekend at CNU, we drop three games there and today did not go our way at all.
“It’s just been a pretty tough stretch this week.”
The Scots are back on the road this weekend, starting a three-game road trip at Piedmont College on Friday night. Henry said his team is up for the challenge.
“We’ve got a good group of players. They’re talented guys, they play the game the right way, they do the right things.
“We’re just in a bit of a stretch where it’s not going our way.”
